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THE STORY OF
WILLIAM CAXTON
HEROES OF ALL TIME
FIRST VOLUMES
Mohammed. By EDITH HOI.LANB.
Alexander tho Great. By ABA RUSSELL, M.A.
(Viet.)
Augrustus. By RKN* FRANCIS, B.A.
Alfred the Great. By A. E. MCKILLIAM, M.A.
Thomas Becket. By SUSAN CUNNINGTON.
Jeanne d'Arc. By E. M. WILMQT-BUXTON,
F.R.Hist.S.
Sir Walter Raleigh. By BEATRICE MARSHALL.
William the Silent. By A. M. MIALL.
Marie Antoinette. By ALICB BIRKHEAD, B.A.
Boys who Became Famous. By F. J. SNBLL.
Oliver Cromwell. By ESTELLE Ross.
Peter the Great. By ALICE BIRKHEAD, B.A.
The Girlhood of Famous Women. By F. J.
SNELL.
Garibaldi and his Red-Shirts. By F. J. SNELL.
Robert Louis Stevenson. By AMY CRUSH.
Queen Victoria. By E. GORDON BROWNE, M.A.
Anselm. By E. M. WILMOT-BUXTON, F.R.Hist.S.
Sir Walter Scott. By AMY CRUSE.
William the Conqueror. By REN & FRANCIS, B.A.
Julius Caesar. By ADA RUSSELL, M.A. (Viet.)
Buddha. By EDITH HOLLAND.
Queen Elizabeth. By BEATRICE MARSHALL.
Warwick the King-maker. By RENE FRANCIS,
B.A.
Abraham Lincoln. By EDITH L. ELIAS, M.A.
William Caxton. By SUSAN CUNNINGTON.
Cardinal Wolsey. By RENE FRANCIS, B.A.
Charles the First. By A. E. MCKILLIAM, M.A.
Many other volumes in active preparation
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THE STORY OF
WILLIAM CAXTON
BY
SUSAN CUNNINGTON
AUTHOR OF
STORIES FROM DANTE ' * HOME AND STATE '
* THE STORY OF THOMAS BECKET '
ETC.
WITH NINE ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
GEORGE G. HARRAP tf COMPANY
2 &* 3 PORTSMOUTH STREET KINGSWAY W.C.
MCMXVII
c <
'.
Printed itt Great Britain
by Ttirnbull d^ Spears,
Q_
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE KENTISH HOME .... 9
II. THE LONDON APPRENTICE ... 20
III. CAXTON AT BRUGES 35
IV. CAXTON, SECRETARY AND STUDENT . . 49
V. THE NEW INVENTION .... 62
VI. AT THE RED PALE 74
VII. KING EDWARD IV .. 85
VIII. THE ROYAL HOUSE OF YORK ... 98
IX. TROUBLOUS TIMES no
X. THE ' UNPOPULAR KING ' . . . .127
- . -
XL THE PASSING OF THIS OLD ORDER . . 139
XII. THE TUDOR ROSE 152
'
-." j .
XIII. THE NEW ORDER . 168
-
XIV. CAXTON'S SUCCESSOR 182
, , ,' ' .' ;
' ' ' ..
. . . '- '
. ' <
. '
,
' .'. V V '
* .'..,.
Illustrations
PAGE
CAXTON PRESENTED TO EDWARD IV BY EARL
RIVERS ..... Frontispiece
THE DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER REFUSED SANC-
TUARY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY ... 30
QUEEN MARGARET TAKEN PRISONER AFTER TEWKES-
BURY 54
A SCRIBE WRITING 68
CAXTON SHOWING A SPECIMEN OF HIS PRINTING
TO EDWARD IV . . . . . .88
THE CORONATION PROCESSION OF RICHARD III . 120
RICHARD III 130
THE QUEEN- DOWAGER IN SANCTUARY AT WEST-
MINSTER .... 144
THE YOUNG EARL OF WARWICK RIDING FROM
THE TOWER . . . . . .178
CHAPTER I: The Kentish
Home
WILLIAM CAXTON, whose father was a
Kentish farmer, was born about the year
1421. He lived to the age of seventy,
and during that time saw the accession of five kings
to the throne. Those years were some of the most
troublous in our history, yet to Caxton we owe the
introduction of one of the most powerful of the arts
of peace. In bringing to England the invention of
printing he began a revolution of greater moment
than that of any overthrow of crown or kingdom. The
story of his life makes known to us many interesting
features of fifteenth-century England.
Kent, popularly praised as ' the Garden of Eng-
land/ was no garden when Caxton was born. A
century before it had been famous for its fruit-trees
and ' wort-yards ' (orchards), but these were now
neglected, and in the Weald the scenery w r as wild
and the cultivation of the land difficult. Not far
from Tunbridge is a small village called Hadlow,
which is supposed to have been near the place of
Caxton's birth ; standing thus amid acres of moor,
covered with low bushes of furze and thick tufts of
heather. These growths, varied with thick coppice
woods, though picturesque and charming to the
modern eye, offered serious drawbacks to farming.
The small villages and hamlets scattered over the
Weald (once the ancient forest land) were inhabited
by people whose hard lives and want of intercourse
with other parts of the country kept them in a very
9
William Caxton
primitive state. Years afterward, when Caxton was
beginning the work which was to make him famous,
he wrote in the preface to one of his translations : ' I
was born and learned mine English in Kent, in the
Weald, where I doubt not is spoken as broad and
rude English as in any place in England/ 1 Any one
who has seen the lonely farms in the Cumberland or
Derbyshire vales or on the Devonshire moors will
have some idea of the kind of place which was the
home of Caxton 's boyhood.
In the fifteenth century Kent and Sussex were the
' Black Country ' of England ; and the timber of the
ancient forest which once stretched over the greater
part of those counties and into Hampshire served as
fuel for the iron-smelting furnaces. The roads were
bad, and across the Weald were often almost im-
passable ; only those from Hythe and Sandwich
to Canterbury, with its famous cathedral contain-
ing the shrine of Archbishop Thomas Becket, were
occasionally repaired in the interests of the pilgrims
journeying to and fro. For two centuries there had
been a law that woods should be cleared away for two
hundred yards on either side of main roads ; but in
many places they overgrew them, and besides making
travel difficult they offered shelter to the many robbers
who lay in wait for travellers. To-day in journeying
through Kent the fruitful orchards and hop-gardens,
and the comfortable farmsteads sheltered from the
sea-breezes by clumps of hardy trees, make one think
that life on a farm may be both prosperous and
pleasant. But in the fifteenth century it was an
altogether different scene.
10
The Kentish Home
The three classes of people who owned or occupied
land, or got their living by working on it, were the
great nobles or abbots ; the tenant-farmers, cultivat-
ing their own land or holding it at a rent from some
abbey or castle ; and the labourers or peasants. Rural
England had not in Caxton's day recovered from the
terrible pestilence (the Black Death) of nearly a
hundred years before. So many people, and especi-
ally country people, had died that there were very
few peasants in any part of the country compared
with the numbers in the time of Edward III, and
thus there was not sufficient labour to till and cultivate
the land. The poorer village people had gradually
for the past two centuries lost their little holdings of
land and worked for hire. Their wages were fixed
by Act of Parliament and were paid daily, to ensure
that they should get nothing for the compulsory
holidays ; they were forbidden to leave their native
place in search of work, and especially they were not
permitted to go to towns in order to learn a trade.
Their employers were hardly better off, although they
had greater freedom. The land was often very poor
ill-dressed, ill-managed, and thus returning very
small crops. Little was known as to differences
of soil or the various kinds of produce for which
they were suited ; the extravagant fashion of per-
mitting arable land to lie fallow (i.e. uncultivated)
one year in three in order to restore its goodness
was universally followed instead of dressing it
with manure ; and, as there were no methods
known of storing hay or preserving other growths
as food for the animals, most of the stock was
II
William Caxton
killed off in November and the meat salted
down.
The distribution of the land was still on the old Saxon
village plan: strips of arable field here, strips of pasture
there, with the separate holdings marked by turfed
paths, or balks. The narrowness of the holdings pre-
vented the corn land from ever being ploughed across,
hence it was not thoroughly turned ; and the long dis-
tances at which some of the separate strips lay from
the homestead caused great loss of time in carrying on
farm-work. There were still but few enclosed fields,
and animals when grazing needed continual ' herding ' ;
geese and swine fed in the thick coppices and on the
outskirts of the forests. We may imagine William
Caxton 's father as a well-to-do farmer, either owning
his farm or holding it as tenant from some manor or
monastery. If the latter, he might be bound to
render certain services to his landlord in repairing
roads or bridges, or in reaping the harvest, or in
supplying materials and labourers for the upkeep of
the manorial estate on certain days of the year. But
he must himself have been in a fairly independent
position and an employer of labourers, otherwise he
could not have apprenticed his son William to the
London cloth merchant Robert Large. This occurred
when the youth was about seventeen years of age.
Until then we may picture him learning the work of
a farmer and taking his share, from the age of eight,
in the family duties.
In the fifteenth century, and indeed for three
centuries later, a household such as that of William
Caxton 's youth was self-sustaining. Not only was
12
The Kentish Home
all the food consumed produced and prepared at home,
with all the clothing, but nearly all the tools and im-
plements used, and even the furniture and utensils.
The flesh eaten was the meat, fresh or salted, of the
animals killed on the farm ; the bread was made from
the barley or rye, grown, reaped, threshed, and ground
at home ; the fleeces and skins were cleaned and
tanned, dressed and spun, and afterward made up
into rough garments ; the simple bowls and platters,
spoons and trenchers, were home-made ; so were
harness and fittings for plough and wagons ; so
also were the ' candles ' grudgingly used in the long
winter, and the lanterns of horn which carried them.
The principal drinks were beer and decoctions of
herbs. The former was made without hops and
lasted good only for about a fortnight, so that brewing
as a household function needed to take place nearly
as often as baking. The only itinerant traders
whose wares supplied the needs of the rural home
were the potter and the smith ; the heavy earthenware
basins and goblets which were slowly replacing those
of wood or horn were sold by the one and metal-
ware by the other. The seller of earthenware was
generally the potter himself, who made his stock in
the winter half of the year and hawked it in the
better weather The smith not only dealt in hard-
ware, but mended and sharpened the tools of the
household the ' tinker ' of modern times is his
lineal descendant.
The one opportunity for intercourse with people
not of the immediate neighbourhood was given by
the annual fair. This yearly market, in which sales
13
William Caxton
of all kinds of produce were possible, took place in
the various trade centres at the festival of the patron
saint of the parish, and might last for three or more
days. In some places some particular kind of market
might predominate as sheep, or cattle, or wool, or
cloth but many were quite general, and gave to the
rural population their one chance of what, in our
own days, is summed up in the term ' shopping.'
Naturally the occasion permitted holiday as well as
business, since it was a complete interruption of the
ordinary routine ; thus with large numbers of people
congregated together there was scope for the wander-
ing juggler and performer, the wonder-worker and
medicine-man, and the troupes of animal-tamers and
tricksters from which, in later days, the circus and
travelling theatre were to develop. Though wheat
was grown in Kent, and its soil, especially in the
Isle of Thanet, was suitable for corn, it is probable
that Caxton 's father found his flocks of sheep by far
the most profitable of his possessions. The wool trade
had been fostered and protected for centuries, and it
was even more prosperous in the fifteenth century
than in earlier times. The settlement of Flemish
weavers in this country under King Edward III had
led to a considerable increase in the trades of making
and dyeing of cloth at home. Formerly it had been
the custom, through the backwardness of our people
in technical arts, to export the wool to Flanders and
reimport the finished material. Indeed, at this time
the reputation of English wool, unsurpassed by any
on the Continent, was in a fair way to be equalled
by that for sober-coloured, deep-tinted English cloth.
14
The Kentish Home
A constant cross-Channel traffic was kept up between
Dover and other Kentish ports and Calais. This
last-named town was often, curiously enough, the
seat of the staple, or recognized wool-market, instead
of an English town, as there existed a dread of
permitting alien merchants too great freedom in
England.
William Caxton's father was, undoubtedly, some-
thing more than a substantial Kentish yeoman, and
it is reasonable to suppose that his trade in fleeces
put him easily into communication with the London
merchant. Robert Large, like Gilbert Becket nearly
three centuries before, became Lord Mayor of London,
and his name has been handed down to fame through
his connexion with a maker of history greater than
himself. For the Kentish lad apprenticed to him
was to accomplish in England one of the greatest
achievements in our history.
We may imagine that William Caxton's father
cared but little for the troublous politics of the time,
and that, like all quiet traders and workers, he asked
only that the Government should guard well the coasts
and the narrow seas, so that pirates and privateers
should not interfere with his ships. But also we
may imagine that the members of the Caxton house-
hold were pleasantly aware that William was of about
the same age as the young King. During little]Henry's
long minority his uncles, the Duke of Bedford in
France and the Duke of Gloucester in England,
sought to rule his double kingdom for him to subdue
completely the one half and to maintain in peace the
other. It was hoped that the conquest of France,
15
William Caxton
begun by his illustrious father, the ' Star of England/
would, with the help of the Duke of Burgundy, be
complete before he was of age himself to rule. But
the event was far otherwise. At the age of seven
years he was crowned King of England at Westminster,
and, two years later, at Paris, he was crowned King
of France. When, in 1438, Caxton was apprenticed
to the London merchant the young King Henry was
beginning to try his prentice hand at ruling. At that
date, too, it is interesting to notice, the imposing
personality handed down to us as Warwick the
King-maker ' was a child of ten years of age, while
Edward, Earl of March, afterward Duke of York and
King Edward IV., was not born until four years later.
Little could the Kentish lad have expected to be
brought into actual contact with these great ones of
the land, as afterward came about.
It is probable that young William Caxton enjoyed
some privileges as a boy which served to form his
taste and enabled him to use profitably the oppor-
tunities which came to him in London. Had he
been an apprentice who could neither read nor write
he would hardly in three years' time have been so
high in his master's esteem as to be named in his will,
and thus free to strike out a new line for himself. In
the early fifteenth century there were some possi-
bilities of education even for country lads. Nearly
all monasteries and priories had a school attached in
which boys were taught to read, to sing the offices of
the Church, and, if they showed promise, to write and
to study the Latin grammar. However busy William
Caxton might be during the summer months on his
16
The Kentish Home
father's land, there were the long weeks of winter when
but little could be done on the farm, and the indoor
pursuits of the nearest religious house were open to
all who wished to learn. And all study that was
pursued at that time was carried on within the walls
of a monastery. Some of these institutions were
famous for one branch of learning, some for another,
but in all alike a knowledge of Scripture, of history,
of medicine, and of farming was preserved. Every
monastery, too, possessed some precious manu-
scripts, and most of them employed monks and
clerks to make copies in beautiful, shapely script.
We may well suppose that a lad like William
Caxton early felt the charm of books and written
characters, and that he watched with eagerness
when, on rare occasions, the pupils of the priory
were allowed to enter the quiet precincts of the
scriptorium.
The homestead which sheltered him until he was
seventeen, and after that knew him no more, may be
pictured as a rather long, low building consisting of
a central room or hall in which the whole public life
of the family was lived cooking, working, resting,
meals, amusements, and sleep alike were carried on
there. Above this was probably a roofed chamber,
or solar, the private room of the heads of the house-
hold, and the storehouse of the family treasures. The
outer walls \vere of wattle, with timber cross-beams ;
the roof, of thatch or red tiles, was supported at an
acute slope by massive ' roof-trees,' visible from
within, for ceilings were not yet common. The
openings for light had no glass, but a painted frame-
B 17
William C ax ton
work formed some protection against the weather, and
heavy sheepskins were hung across them in winter. A
central hearth in the hall contained the fire, and
around it was built a kind of enclosure, within which
great warmth and cosiness prevailed. The smoke
escaped by an opening in the roof, but hung lingeringly
round the rafters before emerging into the open air.
The floor was of earth, strewn with rushes for great
occasions, and a low platform at one;end marked the
' parlour ' of the house. Upon it stood the table of
the master and mistress, and, on a lower level, down
the middle stretched the board on trestle supports
at which sat all the farm servants for their daily meals.
Round the house clustered sheds and byres ; shelters
for tools, provender for the animals and stores. An
enclosure within a wattled hedge formed a ' garth/
or yard, where fowls and geese, swine, and the
younglings of the flocks and herds gathered until
driven afield.
The dress of the fifteenth-century yeoman was
sternly simple, no extravagant town fashions pene-
trating to the seclusion of the Weald. Probably
young Caxton wore a sheepskin tunic with a coarse
linen shirt beneath, long hose from hip to toe, with
wooden clogs to protect the feet. His father's dress
would be very similar, though a tunic of heavy cloth
might replace the undressed fleece. His mother's attire
consisted of a short gown, very full on the hips and
with half sleeves, with a coarse linen overall for wear
in the house, and a long, substantial cloak for great
occasions abroad. The head-dress, which was only
rarely worn by country women, was a light cap with
18
The Kentish Home
a hanging border, usually of the same material as the
cloak, of which it was often the detached hood.
Women of fashion, then as now, were noted for the
inconvenience of their attire, as indeed were also
the men.
CHAPTER II: The London
Apprentice
WHEN Caxton became apprentice to Robert
Large, cloth merchant and alderman of
the city of London, many lads of his age
would be ready to envy him. For though the London
of the fifteenth century may have been a small and
curious town compared with the modern capital, it
was finer and more imposing than any other city in
the country, and had many interesting phases of life
to behold. Tradition had even then woven romance
and glory about it ; if its streets were not ' paved
with gold ' in the countryman's imagination, at least
they were full of exciting possibilities. It was in the
year before Caxton's birth (about eighteen years
before his first sight of London) that the famous Sir
Richard Whittington had become Lord Mayor for the
third time, and already the legends of his dream and
his cat and of the many bells of the city had begun to
be told. And indeed, apart from romance, there were
many great and sober realities to strike the imagina-
tion. London was the seat of the king's court ; at
Westminster the Parliaments assembled ; it was the
great trading centre of the kingdom ; its river was
the highway of traffic for business as well as for
pleasure ; docks and wharves lined the shores within
the city boundaries ; the palaces of the nobles and
the great ecclesiastics were more imposing than those
in any other town except Florence ; its cathedral
and churches, with their lofty bell-towers and stately
shrines, were of great note with travellers even from
20
The London Apprentice
the Continent ; its bridge over the Thames was one
of the most admired sights in Europe ; and its
cleanliness and order had won for it the name
'the White City.'
We think of it now as having had narrow unpaved
streets with no footways ; as being undrained and
unlighted ; as having had houses with overhanging
stories and only outside staircases ; few chimneys,
and fewer windows ; with person and property un-
guarded and unsafe, so that walking in the streets
after dark was forbidden by law, as leading to thefts
and assaults. We think of it too as having been
occupied by a rough and dirty population who knew
nothing and cared nothing for what we now con-
sider the essential comforts and conveniences of life.
Heavy fortresses still guarded the principal ' gates '
of the city Bishop's Gate, Aid Gate, and Lud Gate ;
and, though they were let out to citizens instead of
being manned by guards, they were a constant re-
minder of insecurity. Their gates were still shut at
sunset, except the postern, which \vas opened after
parley ; the heads of traitors and other political
offenders were fixed on spears on each of these great
entrances ; riots and street fights, attacks on Jews
and foreigners, were of frequent occurrence, and when
all men above the rank of burgher wore arms, public
quarrels and duels were common. Yet to William
Caxton, straight from the Weald of Kent, it must
have seemed a very wonderful and magnificent place.
Probably his new home was in Cannon (Candelwick)
Street, quite near St Paul's Cathedral, and, as was the
custom for many centuries after his day, he lived
21
William Caxton
with his fellow-apprentices in his master's house.
He was the youngest of the seven youths entering
thus upon the beginning of their merchant's career,
and his apprenticeship was expected to last for seven
years. At first his duties would be very simple, but
during that time he would be expected to master all
the details and many of the principles belonging to
his trade the packing and unpacking of goods ;
the handling and measuring of bales of cloth ; the
counting and weighing of fleeces ; the distinguishing
of addresses and trade-marks and guild-signs on the
large labels ; the understanding differences of texture,
and of how to fold and wrap delicate fabrics, to
preserve them in their rough transit from London to
Antwerp or Bruges or Calais.
A busy life was led by the London apprentice of
those days. Besides the actual work of the shop
or market, he was required to wait on his master's
family, to do any household labours or errands,
especially the fetching of water from the conduits,
and to assist in watching the few materials exposed
in the outer booth open to the street. This structure
served instead of the modern plate-glass window
for the showing of wares, and the apprentices vied
with each other during the daylight hours in their
loud cries to the passers-by of, " What d'ye lack,
sirs ? What d'ye lack ? "
Moreover, the London apprentice was a person of
importance. His studies and recreations were alike
regulated ; he was required to attend church and to
hear sermons, and to learn his catechism on Sundays
and holy days ; he was subject to public reproof,
22
The London Apprentice
and penalties in the guild-meetings if he wasted his
time or failed to become reasonably efficient in his
work, and he could be publicly whipped for miscon-
duct. In his leisure time and on Sundays and holy
days, after divine service, he was required to attend
at Smooth-fields (Smithfield) or Finsbury Fields for
drill and archery practice, and was liable to be
enrolled as a member of a kind of militia in the event
of war or serious disturbance. He would then march
under the command of the city aldermen and sheriffs
and accompany the Lord Mayor in his capacity of
chief magistrate to help to quell the disorder. He
would join his fellows at every available opportunity
for their favourite sport of football in the streets or
cock-fighting in some sheltered corner, or for wrestling
games and dancing on the open spaces where the
' poles ' were reared at several spots within and
without the city walls. Shrove Tuesday was the
great privileged occasion of football ; none of the
authorities attempted on that day to interfere, nor
would any burgher complain of having to close and
barricade his shop. On the first of May, when the
eagerly looked-for spring had really come, all the
citizen-world went May-poling. A great shaft w r ould
be planted on the green of each of the many pleasant
villages outside London, and within the city they
would be reared at the junction of main roads and
highways. The finest and tallest of these was in
Cornhill ; though that at St Mary-le-Strand rivalled
it : it overtopped the spire of the church of St
Andrew, which was called on that account St Andrew
Undershaft.
23
William Caxton
Cock-fighting went on all the year round, even
schoolboys sharing in it and clubbing together to buy
game-birds. The contests would be fought out in
the great schoolroom and watched by the ' heads ' on
grand occasions, but as a rule they had to be carried
on more or less surreptitiously. Then at Yule-
tide, for the period from Christmas to Candlemas,
the ' mumming/ or dumb-show acting, and carol-
singing and wassailing, formed amusement for whole
groups of young people, who patrolled the streets,
visited the houses of the nobles and the enclosures
of the monasteries, and generous hospitality and some
largesse were given in return for their performances.
From all accounts, the London apprentice of the
fifteenth century had many of the characteristics of
the town lads of to-day a perpetual restlessness,
a quick and ready interest in the doings of the street,
a delight in anything startling or uncomfortable,
and a turn for impudent repartee. We may imagine
young Caxton easily adapting himself to the con-
ditions of his new life, though at first puzzled and
bewildered by the noise and the bustle of town com-
pared with the quiet of the Kentish farm ; wearing
the long worsted hose and short fustian tunic of the
time, a flat cloth cap on his head, and heavy wooden-
soled low shoes on his feet. He would take his meals
with his master's family, sitting with his companions
at the lower end of the trestle-table, and, like them,
keeping perfect silence until the meal was over.
Those were the days before breakfast was a real
' sitting-down ' meal. If he had the opportunity to
break his fast before the dinner hour it would be by
24
The London Apprentice
eating a piece of barley-bread as he went about his
work. At eleven in winter, and twelve in summer,
the dinner, or principal meal of the day, was taken ;
it consisted of stewed meat or fish, cabbages or leeks,
solid pasties of rabbit or pork, rye or barley-bread,
and a horn of beer or ale. This was almost the
only drink in common use. Clever housewives made
wines from most English fruits, mead, and ' teas ' or
decoctions of various herbs, but they were treasured
for special occasions. Wealthy people drank French
and Spanish wines, of which large quantities were
imported, but in the household of the ordinary citizen
there was a strong prejudice in favour of the home-
brewed beer. Indeed, so highly was it thought of
that some was exported, and great casks of it were
sent as gifts to ambassadors and churchmen, merchants
and officials, who had dealings with England.
Caxton's sleeping-place was probably a loft over-
hanging an archway into a little ' garth/ or yard,
and perhaps one or two of the senior apprentices
slept in the house proper, among the bales of cloth,
as snugly as their successors in later generations
slept ' under the counter/ Perhaps, indeed, Robert
Large was one of the first merchants of London to
introduce this substantial table into his warehouse
for convenience in counting the money offered. But
still, as three centuries earlier, there would be no
glass in the window-opening, and, though an upper
chamber, or solar, was becoming a feature of the
newer London houses, there was as yet no inside
staircase. A swinging sign, perhaps a picture of a
hanging fleece, or a bale of cloth, made known the
25
William Caxton
nature of his trade, and within doors a low, heavily
raftered room served as workroom, warehouse, and
sale-place for such customers as entered. But buyers
generally stood outside. As a man abreast of the
times and much concerned with foreign trade, Robert
Large would possess several graduated slats of wood,
with ells and yards and ' hands ' marked thereon,
as laid down by Act of Parliament.
In old London the various trades, and even the
different parts of the same trade, were kept strictly
distinct. If, as we suppose, Caxton's master was a
merchant in a large way, with what we should call
an export and import trade as well as retail, there
would be among his bales and packages occasional
furs and skins, dressed leathers and parchments, and
even, perhaps, a precious manuscript or two. We
may imagine the interest with which the young
Kentish apprentice would take part in the unpacking
of bales and bundles, and by degrees how he would
learn to register the purchases and sales. The
simplest and most usual form of early book-keeping
was by means of ' tallies/ or slats of wood, notched
alike on both ledges in certain frequently recurring
numbers, as fives, tens, twelves, and twenties. One
of these would be split lengthwise one half included
in the bale of goods, the other half hung in the ware-
house. Or, if receiving a bale, a ' tally ' would be
found within, which served, as the modern invoice
does, to check the quantity and retain as the bill.
But for a permanent register the Roman numerals
were employed, marked with a thick quill on parch-
ment ; and a final I was always turned into a J for
26
The London Apprentice
ornament and finish. The Arabic figures, so familiar
to us and, as we think, so inevitable, were then hardly
known in England, and from the ' device of place '
which distinguished them they were believed to have
something of magic about them ; their use was even
considered impious.
The guild of cloth merchants was a leading and
important one, though they were as yet know r n either
as ' weavers ' when they prepared the fabric, or
' shearmen ' when they preserved it. The cloth of
those days was heavily ' napped,' or covered with
surface hair, and was renovated from time to time by
shearing or clipping.
Once a year was held the great Cloth Fair of St
Bartholomew on Smooth-fields, the prior of the
monastery opening the fair and being entitled to
certain dues and tolls which were always exacted by
landowners from traders assembling for business.
There, from all parts, would congregate merchants,
foreign as well as English, though the former were
required to leave London within forty days. Here and
there in London were settled little colonies of Flemish
weavers (one such was at Bermondsey), and they
combined with their special trade that of the fullers,
or dyers. These foreigners seem to have shared in
the ordinary rights and duties of citizens, though we
may suppose that they had some little roughness
to put up with at first from their insular-minded
neighbours, and especially from the London 'prentices.
It is always a matter of much amusement to the
illiterate that a foreigner speaks English with diffi-
culty, and the favourite fifteenth-century test was
27
William Caxton
to require a Fleming to say " Bread and cheese '
when shown those articles of food. He was inevit-
ably betrayed by saying " Kase und Brod."
It may have been during Caxton 's first year of
apprenticeship that his master, Robert Large, became
Lord Mayor. If so, we may imagine how proudly
his apprentices would carry themselves during his
year of office, and how they would have a prominent
part in each pageant of the time. For the yearly
' show ' on November gth which still commemorates
the importance of the old City companies (or guilds)
is but an unworthy representative of the ancient
processions. After the civic election in the great
raftered chamber of the Guildhall there was wont to
be in the adjoining Chapel of St Faith a service which
was attended by all the officials of the city. A new
chapel, beautifully appointed and decorated, had
been built a few years before Robert Large 's mayoralty.
Then followed the procession to Westminster Palace
for the newly elected mayor to offer his fealty to
the sovereign. The procession in Caxton's day was
through the streets, and chiefly on horseback, though
some few years later it went in barges on the river.
Accompanying the Lord Mayor were his principal
dignitaries and officials the City Remembrancer,
the Chamberlain, the Huntsman (for London was
surrounded with chases, and hunting was a favourite
sport), the Sw r ord-bearer, and the Mace-bearer.
Banners and ensigns made gay the passage of the
procession, beautifully embroidered figures of the
patron saints of the city churches and emblazoned
designs of the city arms succeeding each other at
28
The London Apprentice
intervals. The arms, appearing also on the Common
Seal, were the Cross of St George with the Sword of
St Paul in one quarter ; on the other side of the seal
in Caxton's day was a representation of St Paul and
St Thomas of Canterbury. The guilds of the city
followed on foot, bearing their symbols and banners,
and foremost would be the one to which the new
Lord Mayor belonged.
At the Whitsuntide holiday it was the custom for
the men of the various guilds to perform mystery
plays and moralities in the open spaces of the towns.
They carried with them beams and poles and erected
a high platform as a stage. The cities of York and
Coventry have the most famous records of such per-
formances, but we may be sure that London was in
no way behind in activity. The plays gave splendid
opportunities to ambitious apprentices ; for not only
were their services needed for the moving and placing
of stage and properties, but one of them might be
entrusted with a minor part in the acting itself.
It was during the year of Large 's mayoralty, or the
following year, that Caxton probably witnessed one
of the striking and painful sights in which town life
in mediaeval times abounded. It was an outcome of
the bitter political quarrels of the time, in which the
Council of Regency for the young King were the
principal actors. During King Henry's childhood,
while the Duke of Bedford was representing him
in France, his authority here was divided between
the Beaufort brothers and Humphrey, Duke of
Gloucester. Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester,
afterward Cardinal, strove to establish and maintain
29
William Caxton
peace between England and France ; Duke Humphrey
chose to place himself at the head of a war-party.
Then, as since, there were to be found plenty of people
to shout truculently for war without thinking to
count the cost carefully and pay for it honourably.
All such, and many others, admired the reckless-
ness and the bluff, open daring of the Duke of
Gloucester, and he was so far a popular favourite
that his name has been handed down as ' the Good
Duke Humphrey.'
Humphrey had mischievously overthrown the careful
Beaufort plans, and when the opportunity came for
retaliation the Duchess of Gloucester was accused
of ' practising harm ' against the young King by
means of incantations and spells of witchcraft.
She was refused sanctuary in Westminster Abbey,
imprisoned in the Tower, and rigorously examined
till she gave up the names of certain wizards
and necromancers who had instructed her. These
men were condemned to death, and the Duchess was
sentenced to perform public penance by walking
through London streets robed in a white sheet bearing
a scarlet ' S ' (i.e. Sorceress) on front and back, on
three successive days. Her journey was probably
from the Tower to St Paul's Cross, outside the
Cathedral, where an address or sermon would be
preached condemning her crime.
Public punishments were so much in vogue that
this episode would attract less attention and arouse
less horror than in later times. Tradesmen who
cheated, vagrants who attempted theft, roysterers
who made disturbances after nightfall, were wont to
30
The Duchess of Gloucester refused Sanctuary in
Westminster Abbey
W. Hatherell
The London Apprentice
be whipped through the streets, or fixed in the stocks
or the pillory (every parish possessed these penal
instruments), while the rough men and lads made
sport of their discomfort or pelted them with refuse.
It does not follow that any widespread feeling
was aroused in London on account of this punish-
ment of the wife of a popular favourite. The Duke
of Gloucester was so universally known as eccentric
that when he married one of the ladies-in-waiting
of his former wife, the Princess Jacqueline of Hainault,
no one was greatly interested or disturbed. Similarly
her downfall stirred but little regret. The ' Good
Duke ' retired into private life for a time, and pre-
sently the trouble and disgrace were forgotten.
On the greater holy days there would be time for
workers and apprentices to go farther afield and,
leaving the city, explore the quaint villages near :
on the east, Epping on the borders of its famous
forest ; on the northern hills, Hampstead through the
High Gate ; westward, the village of Old Bourne,
where was the palace of the Bishops of Ely ; south-
ward, the pretty little hamlet of Charing, with its
beautiful cross erected to the memory of Edward I's
chlre reine Eleanor. Without going so far there were,
besides, quiet spots round the wells, famous of old
time for the curative properties of their waters
Holy Well, Clerken Well, St Clement's Well, and
Bagnigge Wells, all favourite haunts of Londoners.
There was also the menagerie at the Tower, for ever
since the days of Henry I, whose menagerie at Wood-
stock was the private delight of the monarch, and
the resort of men of science, there had been a collection
IVilliam Caxton
of wild animals at the Tower to which the public
was admitted. The name of the Lion Tower com-
memorates to this day the home of the king's leopards
and their keepers.
From some of the City records we learn that Robert
Large, during his year of office, had an official resi-
dence, apart from his private home, at what was
in later days known as the Windmill, in Old Jewry.
This house had originally been a synagogue, but when
the Jews were expelled from London (as happened
occasionally) it had been granted to a minor order
of friars. During the fifteenth century it was
granted on more than one occasion to the Lord
Mayor as his civic mansion. In later years it be-
came a tavern. Probably this house had windows
of oiled linen and a chimney, with a solar above the
great hall, and a kitchen shut off with a partition.
There remain to us some old inventories which
give an idea of the comparatively little furniture
and few possessions which even well-to-do citizens
had. One such contains: "Two mattresses, 8
blankets and i serge, 8 linen sheets, two feather
beds, 3 brass pots, i candlestick, 2 andirons, i tri-
pod, i washing vessel, one frying-pan, i canvas bag,
2 pillows, 2 coffers, 6 chests, i counter, i table,
2 stools, 2 chairs, i cupboard, 2 tubs, 6 silver
spoons, i flagon." For many years yet people
spent their money on fine clothes rather than on
furniture and decorations of the house ; and if we
wonder how they stored and took care of their
wardrobes we may remember that most of it was in
wear all the time. For houses were cold, draughty
32
The London Apprentice
and badly-built, so that as many clothes were worn
indoors as out. We may note, too, how our familiar
piece of furniture came by its name of ' chest of
drawers.' The slow development of the chest into
a box with partitions, and presently partitions which
would draw out instead of being lifted, explains the
cumbrous title.
Of changes of clothes or private possessions a
young apprentice would have few, and Caxton
would be no exception to the rule. A short knife
attached to his belt for use in his work and at table,
a second tunic with leather trimmings, an embossed
leather strap with metal buckles, and perhaps a
woollen rug like a Scottish plaid for night or especially
cold weather would complete his list of treasures.
A curt little note in a record of a trial for manslaughter
of a young student \vho killed his opponent in a
wrestling bout would appropriately describe the youth
of Caxton's day : ' He has no chattels." Hence
none could be confiscated. Nor had he cause for
anxiety as to being robbed which was an ever-
present dread to his substantial elders. For not only
the perils of the streets, but also the perils of the house
were many. Walls were unsubstantial, only a few
being of brick or stone ; the lower part was of shingle
and mud, the upper of timber ; and it was not there-
fore difficult for the resolute ' housebreaker ' to
make a hole through the wall and through it drag
his booty.
A marked improvement was beginning to take
place in the methods of building at the close of
Caxton's time in London, the making of bricks having
c 33
William Caxton
become an established industry for the first time
since Roman days.
Instead of the seven years which was his appointed
time, the young lad found himself free in some-
thing over three. His master fell ill and died
in the second year after his mayoralty ; and so
well had his Kentish apprentice pleased him that
he bequeathed him a legacy of twenty marks and
cancelled his indentures of service. Caxton's mind
was soon made up as to what to do. No longer
would he stand at the junction of Candlewick Street
and Cheapside crying, " What d'ye lack, sirs ? '
He would go abroad and see the foreign lands of
which he had often thought as the great bales arrived
from Antwerp or Bruges. And as he belonged to the
fraternity of the Weavers or the Shearers (afterward
to become the honourable guild of Cloth-workers),
there were those who could advance his wishes and
put him in the way of a more independent life. This
next phase must be described in another chapter.
34
CHAPTER III: Caxtonat
Bruges
WILLIAM CAXTON, junior apprentice, was
not the only recipient of the bounty of
the kindly Robert Large, ex-Lord Mayor
of London. He left to his parish church of St Olave,
where he was buried, two hundred pounds ; to St
Margaret's, Lothbury, twenty-five pounds ; to the
poor, twenty pounds ; to the maintenance of London
Bridge, one hundred marks ; to the covering in of
the Wall brook (a nuisance in rainy seasons), two
hundred marks ; to dowries for poor girls of his
parish, one hundred marks ; to poor householders,
one hundred pounds. The mark appears to have
been worth 135. 4d., and thus Caxton's modest fortune
was about thirteen pounds (worth now about 150).
Picture him now a staid and upstanding youth of
about twenty, fair haired, close cropped, with blue
shining eyes, and clad in the sober garb of the young
Londoner of the day. The warden and elders of the
guild have used their influence and have recommended
him to the officials of the corresponding guild in Bruges,
and thither he is starting on a June morning about
two months after his master's death. His journey
would be made on one of the freight boats which
carried cargoes from the London wharves to the
Flemish ports, and would take some weeks to accom-
plish. Indeed, in stormy weather the mere crossing
from Sandwich to Boulogne often took a fortnight,
the small, ill-equipped vessels being tossed about in
the Channel, unable to get near the shore. For those
35
William Caxton
were the days when there were no harbours beyond
those formed here and there by the fortunate con-
figuration of the land. The towns of Belgium which
stood on the splendid rivers of that country held a
position of great importance in the commerce of
the Middle Ages. Where a waterway did not exist
the enterprise of the people supplied one, and only
France exceeded Belgium in the number of its canals.
Bruges, in Caxton's time the principal town of West
Flanders, is said to have gained its name from the
many bridges over the canals which carried its trad-
ing vessels to and from the city. With Bremen and
Liibeck, Bruges formed the third great town of the
famous Hanseatic League ; and though in the passing
of centuries it is now a quiet old-world city, in the
fifteenth century it rivalled Hamburg itself. Its
tapestry and cloths were of European fame, and its
guild of cloth-workers was a very important corpora-
tion. Their hall and bell-tower were till lately one
of the sights of the ancient city ; and when Caxton
first visited Bruges he would find it in some ways
more stately and impressive than London itself.
In those days the map of Europe showed several
very different boundaries of countries from that of
modern times. The Duchy of Burgundy, of which
Dijon was the old capital, was an almost independent
fief of the king of France. Our English history of
the time is full of suggestive references to the power
and importance of its reigning dukes, and to our
alternate alliances and disputes with them. The
counts of Flanders were equally powerful, and, until
their dominions were absorbed by France or Belgium,
36
A t Bruges
they were alternately friendly or troublesome neigh-
bours both to Germany and France. Their domin-
ions were on the borders of these t\vo rival nations,
and the wealth and importance of the great towns
enabled the counts to face sovereigns of greater but
less developed countries with impunity. Antwerp,
on the Scheldt, was one of the greatest seaports and
one of the strongest fortresses in Europe ; it still
remains a city of commercial importance. Ghent,
from which town one of the sons of King Edward III
took his title, was almost equally great. It is not
an island town, but a town of islands, standing on
more than twenty detached islets connected by
bridges. In those days Tournai w r as greater than
Brussels, though their positions have long since been
reversed ; and Liege, with its iron-working industry,
is comparatively modern.
If, as we suppose, Caxton during his time at Bruges
held a position as agent for the London guilds, he
had indeed an unusual and splendid opportunity for
exercising his good sense and business judgment,
For though trade will go on even in spite of political
strife and arbitrary regulations, it is hampered and
hindered by them, and the relations between England
and Burgundy were such as to lead to restrictions.
Only a short time before Flanders and Burgundy
had become united under the Duke of the latter
province, and discord with him, our some-time ally,
was one result of the English attempt to maintain
a position in France.
Five years after Caxton's departure from London,
King Henry, then aged twenty-five, was married to
37
William Caxton
the Princess Margaret of Anjou, the niece of the
French King. This did not prevent that sovereign
from seizing the province of Maine and invading
Normandy. The English armies were driven out, and
by 1450 only a part of the province of Guienne and
the port of Calais remained of the young King's great
French inheritance. Two years later Guienne was
lost, and thus the little son born to King Henry and
Queen Margaret was heir to the English crown and
Calais. But for three centuries yet his successors
were to claim the empty title of King of France.
When Caxton first settled in Bruges, Duke Philip
the Good was ruler of Burgundy and Flanders, and
faithfully sought to govern his dominions well. Six
years before he had renounced the English claims,
but it is very possible that he ignored the trade barrier
set up by England for the sake of fostering the trade
and merchandise of the cities in his duchy. The
English Government had forbidden the carrying of
English goods to any foreign port save Calais, thus
seriously damaging the Flemish weaving industry
and no less disastrously affecting the prosperity of
English wool-growers. It is supposed that through
the good offices of the trade guilds in each country
the evil effects of this statute were mitigated and some
freedom of trade was established.
The years from 1452 to 1461 were full of trouble
and disturbance in England. The King fell a victim
to an attack of acute melancholia, or insanity ; an
insurrection under a popular leader, Jack Cade, ex-
pressed the popular indignation with the Government ;
Richard, Duke of York, claimed to be next heir to
38
At Bruges
the throne and was supported by a powerful body
of nobles. He was appointed Protector during the
King's illness, but in two years' time Henry was so
far recovered as again to be able to reign. Soon
open strife began between the supporters of the
Lancastrian line and those of the Duke of York, and
the Wars of the Roses kept the country in turmoil.
Strangely enough, the principal actors in this con-
test were the principal sufferers. There were few
sieges, towns wisely yielded when threatened, and,
as far as possible, pursued their way of trade under
the new allegiance. But the great nobles, their sup-
porters and their retainers fought savagely and re-
lentlessly, through the long apprenticeship (it is
suggested) of the war in France. With all the bitter-
ness of a family quarrel it was persisted in until the
combatants were both reduced to powerlessness.
The peace-loving King, with his occasionally-returning
malady, was but a source of weakness ; while his
Queen, Margaret of Anjou, had all the courage and
resolution of a long line of warlike ancestors, but
never could she rely on supporters at a critical
moment, nor bring herself to waive revenge and thus
achieve a surer victory. The great Earl of Warwick,
the ' Last of the Barons,' set a shameless example
of inconstancy ; the Duke of York was slain on
the field, handing on to his son Edward, a youth of
about nineteen, the claim to the throne. In 1461
Edward was proclaimed king, as Edward IV, by
the victorious party ; and King Henry, the Queen,
and the boy prince fled to Scotland and afterward
to France.
39
William Caxton
Three years later King Edward, yielding to the
representations of the London merchants, sought to
relax the restrictions on trade with Burgundy and
Flanders, and he approached the Good Duke Philip
with that intent. This perhaps he did the more
readily since France was disposed to support the
Lancastrians, and hence it seemed politic to have
Burgundian influence on the side of York. Tradition
has it that the Englishman, Caxton, now Rector
of the Domus Anglorum, or House of the English
Merchants, was chosen as envoy to carry the com-
mission from the King of England.
A feature of the trading settlements of foreigners
during the Middle Ages was their invariable custom
of living in a little community, or colony, apart from
the townsfolk of the place. So it was when Flemings
settled in Norwich, Germans in London, or English
in Bruges. We see the same characteristic in the
East India Company's factories and forts in India
three centuries later. The English House at Bruges
was a handsome structure, with a chapel attached,
as became the dwelling of the merchants whose
national commodity, wool, was claimed ' to keep
the whole world warm/ The regulations un<ler which
the little community lived \vere strict ana almost
conventual ; the gates were closed at sunset and
strangers were admitted only to interview the
Rector. The Rector of the English House at Bruges
was superior officer, so to speak, of the similar but
less important houses at Antwerp and Ghent.
Caxton seems to have arranged successfully with
the Duke a treaty by which the commerce between
40
At Bruges
England and Burgundy, interrupted by political
quarrels during the past twenty years, was to be
resumed freely ; besides Calais, a Flemish port was
to be made an English ' staple/ and all men were
forbidden to interfere with peaceful merchants of
either country in carrying on their trade.
At this time Caxton was a man of about forty-
three, well versed in business, accustomed to re-
sponsibility, a thinker, and a man of the world.
In his travels about r the countries of Brabant,
Flanders, Holland, and Zealand ' on the business of
the English woollen staple, he would come into con-
tact with men of all degrees, and be made acquainted
with many devices in customs and trade ; in all, we
may be sure, he found interest.
A favourite pursuit of the great in those days
was card-playing, and it had been one of the artistic
industries of the noble city of Venice to paint the
figures on the slips of cardboard. During the fifteenth
century some enterprising German towns were em-
ploying, instead, the quicker method of using wooden
blocks and ' emprinting ' the designs, and the Venetian
artists, in the interests of their trade, asked that restric-
tions should be placed upon the use of ' emprinted '
cards. Probably each country had its own industry
devoted to supplying these ' toys/ for we find that in
the same year as that of the favourable treaty with
Burgundy a statute of Edward IV forbade the im-
portation of playing-cards into England.
Besides playing-cards, devotional pictures for the
decoration of service-books and missals were also
produced by means of the wooden blocks. It is
William Caxton
possible, too, that the curious symbols which served
as merchants' and guild marks were similarly pro-
duced, and, if so, there was, of course, every reason
why Caxton should have been interested in the clever
labour-saving device. The oldest wood-block print
known to us is dated 1423, two years after Caxton's
birth, and represents St Christopher bearing the infant
Christ. But at the time when Caxton was living in
the Low Countries these prints were very generally
seen, and they were also used as illustrations to
Scripture texts. These appeared in books of a few
pages, each page having a picture and a few words of
story, the whole being known as a Block Book. But
it still remained to be discovered how to cut out
separate letters in such a way that their impression
should give the right appearance on paper. The
earliest step was the carving of separate words, such
as titles of the pictures, or separate texts. One of
the most persistent and patient of the workers bent
on mastering this was John Gutenberg at Mentz ;
another was Peter Costar at Haarlem. We can never
know the exact share of each of these and several
others in the various improvements, but it is generally
agreed that Gutenberg first succeeded in cutting out
separate words in the wooden block and thus print-
ing a page at a time. The next step was to have the
single letters, so that they could be used again and
again, and, when this was accomplished, to have
them of metal instead of wood, so that they could be
cast in a die instead of being carved separately.
But (as anyone knows who has tried to read ' look-
ing-glass writing ') the die must be of the shape to
42
A t Bruges
contain the letter, and the letter itself is the inversion
of the impression it makes. So for many years the
patient ' emprinters ' worked on, improving here
and there, until at last some one discovered how to
cut the die, or matrix as it is called. The new method
of writing was not, however, at once a rival to the
old manuscript method.
It was at first looked upon as a curiosity, and
though the letters were of the same shape as those
of hand-writing, they were more mechanically regular
and thus seemed lacking in the finish and individual
character of the written ones. Also the evenness
which we to-day connect with printed type could not
be attained while the cutting of the dies had to be
done by hand and with imperfect tools ; there was
no way of spreading the ink quite smoothly over the
type, nor of pressing the paper upon the inked letters
so that the contact was exactly level. By degrees,
however, one improvement succeeding another, the
Mentz ' emprinters/ with splendid enthusiasm, em-
barked on the great task of producing the whole
Bible by the new method. One of the twenty copies
then made was discovered in the library of Cardinal
Mazarin, and it is hence often known as the Mazarin
Bible. It is supposed to have been printed in the
year 1456.
In 1467 the Good Duke Philip of Burgundy died,
and was succeeded by his son Charles, popularly
known, through the mediaeval fondness for nick-
names, as Charles the Rash, or Charles the Bold.
At his father's court many Lancastrian exiles had
found refuge, as the Duchess was connected with
43
William Caxton
the English royal house. The chronicler, Philippe
de Comines, describes the unhappy condition of some
of these political refugees. " Some of them were
reduced to such extremes of want and poverty
before the Duke of Burgundy received them that
no common beggar could have been in greater. I
saw one of them who was Duke of Exeter (but he
concealed his name) following the Duke of Burgundy's
train barefoot and bare-legged, begging his bread
from door to door. . . . There were also some of the
families of the Somersets." Yet, within a year of
his accession, we find the young Duke marrying the
Lady Margaret, sister of the English King Edward IV.
The marriage ceremony took place at Bruges, and the
busy, luxurious city gave itself up to a series of
magnificent entertainments and public rejoicings in
honour of the event. In these William Caxton was
probably a person of some importance. He was of
the same nation as the bride ; he held a position of
public trust as representative of the most influential
merchants' guild ; and, moreover, his acquaintance
with many cities and many interests would win for
him esteem and respect.
As in mediaeval Florence, the towered mansions
of the Flemish nobles stood side by side with the
fine houses of the burghers, and the curious modern
affectation of scorning trade and commerce had not
yet been adopted, even in England ; in the Flemish
towns, as in the Italian cities, the best resources of
art were devoted to the decoration of the churches,
public buildings, and private houses. So that it
was through the streets of no mean city that there
44
A t Bruges
paced the bridal procession of the English Princess
and her soldier-husband. A certain John Paston,
an Esquire of Norfolk, who came in her train, thus
describes his impressions of the occasion : ' As for
the duke's court, as for lords, ladies and gentlewomen,
knights, esquires and gentlemen, I never heard of none
like to it save King Arthur's Court." The Duke was a
ruler of such importance in Europe that nearly every
court had sent its ambassador on this occasion.
The representative of the King of France was the
Lord High Constable, and, greatly as his presence
was desired by the Duke as conferring honour on his
nuptials, the manner of his coming struck a jarring
note. He elected to arrive with great state and a
long procession of nobles, gentlemen-at-arms and
knights ; with trumpets and banners and all the
panoply of grandeur, and also a disproportionate
number of armed followers, whose swords and
accoutrements clanked threateningly through the
crowded streets. Moreover, he had carried before
him a drawn sword, as emblem of feudal sovereignty.
This so incensed the Duke that he refused to receive
the Constable, and the festivity was therefore held
with an omen of coming strife in every one's mind.
Still another unhappy circumstance marred the
joyful preparations. A quarrel took place between
one of the Duke's retainers and a young noble in the
train of a visiting ambassador. It was about a quite
trifling matter merely a stroke in a game of tennis
but the angry player against whom the decision went
drew his sword and struck his opponent so violently
that he died. The murderer was arrested and cast
45
IV i I Ham C ax ton
into one of the Duke's prisons, and in spite of all
pleas for mercy the Duke ordered him to be executed
on the very morning before he himself rode forth to
meet his bride. The relatives of the young knight,
some of whom were men of position and influence,
vowed vengeance against the ruler who thus sternly
punished an offence which was often expiated by a fine.
Such turbulent scenes were continually occurring
in those times, and Caxton must often have witnessed
disputes and conflicts as he pursued his ordinary life.
We do not know exactly what position he held at
this time, but it is supposed that ever since he had
been commissioned, in 1464, to help to arrange the
treaty of commerce between Edward IV of England
and Duke Philip the Good, he had been in some
position of trust at the ducal court. Perhaps he
\vas a controller of estates or warden of ports, but
it is almost certain that he was in the train of the
Duke as he went from Bruges to Ecluse to receive
the Princess Margaret when she arrived. We can
fancy that the royal lady would feel a kindly interest
in the Englishman, perhaps the only person in her
new home, besides her own attendants, who could
speak her own language. It is possible, too, that
she found in him a taste similar to her own : a love
of books and delight in songs and stories. However
this may have been, from the coming of the English
Princess, Caxton seems to have ceased to travel
about from town to town negotiating with the
merchant guilds, and to have lived on one or other
of the estates of the Duchess, employed chiefly as
steward or secretary.
A t Bruges
In that capacity he had considerable leisure,
which (like all intelligent people) he proceeded to
fill up. Among the possessions of the Duke and
Duchess were, if not a library, at least several books,
beautifully written and illuminated within, and
massively and handsomely bound without. For the
great were accustomed to receive as delicate gifts,
from scholars and churchmen, fine manuscript copies
of some favourite books. In the days when furniture
was scarce and the little personal possessions that
fill our modern rooms were unknown, there might
often be found in a great carved chest in the lady's
bower, or in a press in the wall, some few treasures
in the way of books or musical instruments. Very
often the owners could hardly read the books or play
the instruments, but sometimes they could do both ;
and apparently the Duchess Margaret was an accom-
plished and educated \voman.
The ' Good Duke Humphrey ' was, strange to say,
a book-lover. When, during the French wars, the
English army looted Paris, the Duke of Gloucester
was in command, and he took, as his share of the spoil,
many precious manuscript-books from the library
of the French king in the Louvre. Some years later
(1440-1446) he gave several of these to the University
of Oxford, thus laying the foundation of w r hat was
afterward to become the Bodleian Library, and one
of the three greatest collections of books in our
country. The central inner enclosure of the Bodleian,
as we see it to-day, was the original ' Duke
Humphrey's Library,' built to accommodate scholars
wishing to study the precious volumes. We read
47
William Caxton
that the building of the Library, which was put in
hand soon after Duke Humphrey's death in 1447,
was delayed considerably by the King (Edward IV)
withdrawing the masons in order to build St George's
Chapel at Windsor.
It is interesting to notice the names of some of the
books given or bequeathed by the Duke : the works
of Ovid, Cato, Cicero in the Latin ; Aristotle and
Plato in Greek ; commentaries by Bede and Vincent
de Beauvais ; some medical treatises ; some volumes
of the Italian novelist Boccaccio ; the sonnets of
Petrarch and the Divine Comedy of Dante. Like
Caxton, he had always cared ' to study in books of
antiquity,' although from the bustling turbulence
of his life, and the rash and unthinking conduct of
which he was capable, we should not have expected
it of him. None of these books which he had pos-
sessed and enjoyed was among those which afterward
became connected with Caxton's name.
CHAPTER IV: Caxtm, Secre-
tary and Student
WE may think of Caxton during the next
three or four years as living an entirely
happy and congenial life in one or other
of the Duke of Burgundy's castles, conducting the
necessary correspondence for his patrons in the
management of their estates, and devoting himself
with keenness and energy to the task of reading and
translating some of the favourite old-world stories.
Duke Charles, as was the fashion with rulers of those
times, was much engaged with adventurous and war-
like pursuits, of quarrels and reprisals, of marches
and attacks. His father had devoted the whole of
a long life to the great endeavour of protecting
his duchy and fostering in it the arts of peace ;
Charles the Bold took a very different line. His hot
and -haughty temper, impatient pride and trucu-
lent spirit led him to be ever ready to fight, to be
easily provoked, and with great readiness to give
provocation.
In his many expeditions his Duchess could not
accompany him, so that we may picture her as living
the ordinary life of the great ladies of the day in
some vast, frowning castle. It would not be very
unlike her early life in England. Her meals would
be taken at the High Table on the dais in the great
hall ; she would receive any honoured guest or
traveller of note, and listen to the songs or romances
of the wandering minstrels. Her private life would
be spent, for the most part, in her bower, an upper
D 49
William Caxton
chamber with high, narrow windows shielded by
lattice-work, from which might be seen the fair,
stretching country of Burgundy. There she would
receive her bailiffs and secretaries (for we have
reason to believe that she was a good woman of
business), her falconers and huntsmen, and there
she would sit, surrounded by her ladies and attend-
ants, at a tambour-frame plying her busy needle
in making great canvas pictures of hunting and
pastoral scenes.
It must not, however, be supposed that she lived
an entirely quiet or indoor life. Hunting and
hawking, with well-trained hounds and falcons, was
a great resource with mediaeval ladies. Much of the
land of Burgundy was forest or marsh, carefully
reserved, as in England, for the use of the dukes and
their retinues in sport. We may picture Caxton as
occupying a privileged position in her household ;
he appears to have had control of certain of the
revenues of the Duchy and access to all its written
treasures. Among these were copies of the favourite
romances : Hector of Troy, The Romance of Alexander,
Renard the Fox, King Arthur and his Knights,
Charlemagne and Roland, and various fragments of
historical records, such as Chronicles of England,
Description of Britagne, and Feats of Arms and
Chivalry. Most of these were written in Old French,
the true language of romance, and not far removed
from the Burgundian French which was spoken at
the time.
Here was opportunity for Caxton to develop his
secret taste for reading, and he tells us a little about
50
Secretary and Student
his pursuits and his companions and friends in
Burgundy. " Oft was I excited of the venerable
man Messire Henry Bolomyer, Canon of Lausanne,
for to reduce for his pleasure some historic, as well
in Latin and in romance as in other fashion written ;
that is to say of the right, puissant, virtuous, and
noble Charles the Great, King of France and Emperor
of Rome, son of the great Pepin, and of his princes
and barons, as Rowland, Oliver and other." These
' reductions ' were perhaps translations, perhaps
abridgments, of the old stories, which were wont to
run to thousands of lines ; all later generations of
Englishmen, therefore, are indirectly indebted to
the worthy Messire Henry Bolomyer, Canon of
Lausanne, for setting Caxton to the task of trans-
lation and abridgment. For had it not been
for his interest and desire to reproduce the old
stories in a modern version, his attention might
not have been so thoroughly engrossed by the new
invention of Emprinting. That at first he saw no
connexion between the picture-cuts, trade-mark-
stamping, and entire books no longer hand-written
is certain.
In his interesting task he found such difficulties
as daunted him an experience pardonable enough
since he was certainly working without good diction-
aries, and, as he modestly avows, with very imperfect
knowledge of both the French and his own English
tongue. When all these things came before me,"
he writes, " after that I had made and written five
or six quires, I fell in despair of this work, and pur-
posed no more to have continued therein, and the
William Caxton
quires laid apart, and in two years after laboured
no more at this work, and was fully in will to have
left it." Naturally the vocabulary of trade and
intercourse with merchants would contain but few
terms specially suited to stories of fighting and
adventure. Perhaps his overcast air, perhaps his
modest complaint to his mistress when discussing
some business matter, revealed to the kindly Duchess
her secretary's disappointment. He continues :
" Till on a time it fortuned that the right high,
excellent, and right virtuous princess, my right
redoubted lady, my Lady Margaret, sent for me to
speak with her good grace of divers matters, among
the which I let her Highness have knowledge of the
beginning of this work ; which anon commanded me
to show the said five or six quires to her said grace.
And when she had seen them anon she found de-
faute in mine English, which she commanded me
to amend, and moreover commanded me straightly
to continue and make end of the residue not
translated.''
It is noticeable how completely Caxton has adopted
the courtly style of speech about his august mistress ;
and the almost extravagantly chivalrous terms in
which he speaks of her and her condescension show
us too the gentler side of fifteenth-century civiliza-
tion the element of respect and reverence for women.
Caxton's narrative continues : " Whose dreadful
commandment I durst in no wise disobey, because I
am a servant unto her said grace and receive of her
yearly fee, and other many good and great benefits ;
but forthwith went and laboured in the said trans-
52
Secretary and Student
lation after my simple and poor cunning, all so nigh
as I can, following mine author, meekly beseeching
the bounteous highness of my said lady that of her
benevolence list to accept and take in gree (kindly)
this simple and rude work.' 1
Thus we find Caxton one of the long line of writers
who owed their advancement, at first at least, to
the kindly interest of great patrons. Until quite
modern times it was, indeed, almost the only way
of producing literary work, and the mechanical side
-the writing or the printing, as it came to be was
for a long time yet still a part of the author's or the
translator's concern. A previous resident in the
Burgundian ducal household had translated the old
Tales of Troy into French, and his copy was un-
doubtedly one of the manuscript books among which
Caxton revelled in his quiet turret chamber. This
translator was Messire Raoul de Fevre, chaplain to
Duke Philip the Good, and he may have been still
alive in Caxton's early years in the Duchess Margaret's
service.
Meanwhile in England the peace which followed
Edward of York's victory lasted but a short time
and was rudely broken. Warwick, the most powerful
of the new King's supporters, who had great estates
all over England and whose fortress-mansion in
London is still commemorated in Warwick Lane,
became discontented with the rewards and considera-
tion he received from Edward. He was especially
offended at the King's refusal to sanction the marriage
of the Duke of Clarence with Warwick's daughter.
He therefore began to plot with the King of France,
53
William Caxton
Louis XI, and secretly had the forbidden marriage
accomplished. He also visited Duke Charles of
Burgundy, but failed to win his support for the plan.
Louis, however, was quite willing to help the
Lancastrians back to power, since Edward of York
had chosen to ally himself with Burgundy, and he
arranged a meeting between the Earl of Warwick
and the exiled Queen Margaret. The Queen accepted
his offer of service, and a marriage was arranged
between the young Prince of Wales and Warwick's
second daughter, Anne. Then the Earl returned to
England, gathered his forces, enticed King Edward
from London to subdue an insurrection in the
North, and then marched to London and proclaimed
Henry VI a restored king.
It was then Edward's turn to flee. In the latter
part of the year 1470 he appeared at his sister's
court in Bruges as a refugee from England, while
his Queen sought sanctuary in Westminster Abbey,
and there the heir to the throne was born during his
father's exile. This was barely three years after the
gay wedding of Duke Charles the Bold and the
Yorkist princess. Revolutions were so frequent in
the many small, turbulent States on the Continent
that possibly the King's sojourn at the Burgundian
court aroused but little interest except in the high
quarters of political intrigue. Louis of France would
be annoyed, of course, but the Duke of Burgundy
was too powerful and important a ruler at present
to be crushed for espousing the opposite side in a
neighbour's quarrel.
Edward's stay in exile was short, for in less than
54
Queen Margaret taken Prisoner after Tewkesbury 54
Stephen Reid
Secretary and Student
six months he had made a bold dash for England,
landed far in the north and won adherents (like
Bolingbroke in Richard II's day) by protesting that
he had come back to claim his York estates. Of two
things we may be sure that while in Flanders and
Burgundy he won golden opinions for his gracious
and manly bearing, and that he saw and spoke
with his fellow-countryman, William Caxton. Hence
there would be a thrill of interest in Burgundian
court circles when in the following May came the
news that, after the battle of Barnet and the battle
of Tewkesbury (in one of which the powerful Warwick
was killed and in the other the young Prince Edward
and Queen Margaret taken prisoner) Edward of York
was again King of England. He sent a gracious
letter of thanks to the nobles, the mayor, and the
burghers of Bruges for their kindly welcome in his
exile. The palace where he stayed is now one of the
Museums of the city, but the raftered hall where he
was entertained, the kitchen with its mighty open
fire-place where the banquets were prepared, even
the little apothecaries' room where the Duchess
Margaret's ' leech ' prepared the medicines and
unguents for the ducal household may still be seen.
A few pieces of armour and some ancient solid fur-
niture may have been seen by the exiled ancestor
of our present sovereign, and many of the heavy
kitchen utensils now carefully treasured date back
to an even earlier day.
Philippe de Comines, the great chronicler of the
times, warmly praises King Edward's open and fear-
less manner, and especially commends his generosity
55
William Caxton
in war. He writes : " King Edward told me that in
all the battles which he had gained his way was that
when victory was on his side, to mount a horse and
ride about crying out, ' Save the common soldiers
but put the gentry to the sword.'
One of the ducal castles was evidently at Ghent
and another at Cologne, for Caxton mentions in his
prefaces in later years that he was resident at Bruges,
at Ghent, and at Cologne, and that he had much
leisure, but was all the more bent on persevering
with the translation of the old romances. ' I thought
in myself it should be good to translate it (The
Histories of Troy) into our English, to the end that
it might be had as well in the royaume of England as
in other lands/' He tells us too that it was " begun
in Bruges, and continued in Ghent and finished in
Cologne in time of the troublous world and of the
great division in the royaumes of England and France,
that is, to wit, the year of our Lord one thousand
four hundred and seventy-one/'
At Cologne a vigorous centre of the new, mysteri-
ous art of ' printing ' was growing up ; and conse-
quently we may imagine Caxton making friends
there with the silent busy men and, by slow degrees,
getting to understand more and more of the wonder-
ful trade secret. For, devoted as he was to his
translator's art, he found the mechanical labour
of writing out his version very wearisome. His
Apologia in the Third Book of his Recueil says :
" Thus end I this book, which I have translated
after mine author as nigh as God hath given me
cunning, to Whom be given thanks and praises.
56
Secretary and Student
And forasmuch as in the writing of the same my pen
is worn, mine hand weary and not steadfast, mine
eyes dimmed with overmuch looking on the white
paper, and my courage not so prone and ready to
labour as it hath been, and that age creepeth on me
daily and feebleth all the body ; and also because
I have promised to divers gentlemen and to my
friends to address them as hastily as I might this
said book, therefore I have practised and learned,
at my charge and dispense, to ordain this said book
in print, after the manner and form as you may
here see ; and is not written with pen and ink as
other books are to the end that every man may have
them at once.' 1
A book with fair pages covered with words ' not
written with pen and ink ' was in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries as great a wonder as in the nine-
teenth century were the first steam locomotive or the
early automobiles. As, however, there was not yet
a cursive (or running) script, the first printers copied
the familiar manuscript characters (afterward to be
known as the Black Letter type), and the difference
between print and handwriting was not very easily
recognized. This led to the insertion in most books
of the announcement : 'I, without pen or pencil,
have imprinted this book.' 1 Another feature of the
work of the early printers is often forgotten now that
labour is so divided into different trades and machinery
is plentiful. The German and Flemish workers from
whom Caxton learnt the art had to make their own
presses or adapt them from something already in
use, to cut or cast their type, to make their own ink
57
William Caxton
even the ' dabbers/ or soft knots of sheepskin, with
which to apply it had to be made ; and besides reading
and correcting their copies, they had to bind the book
when printed.
Most inventions, in their progress toward perfec-
tion, leave, as it were, a trail of defeated ambitions,
of ruined and disappointed men, and often of martyrs
in their cause. That of printing was no exception.
For although the cost of printing many copies of a
book was much less than that of writing many copies,
yet to print only a few, or to succeed in selling only
a few, made the process much too expensive. Hence
the hesitation with which a work was undertaken
unless a sale were guaranteed by some patron. Caxton
was fortunate enough to have powerful friends among
the great, so that his knowledge of the hardships
endured by some of the printers of Mentz and Bruges
served, not to depress him, but to make him careful
and far-seeing.
Among the nobles in attendance on the Princess
Margaret, when she came to Bruges in 1468 as a bride,
was a certain young peer, Lord Scales, brother to the
Queen of Edward IV. When, three years later,
Edward took refuge at the Burgundian court, this
nobleman was in his retinue, and on one of these
occasions became known to Caxton. They had
evidently some similarity in tastes, and we may well
fancy them discussing books together. By this time
Lord Scales had reached his majority and become
Earl Rivers, while his family was fast becoming the
most powerful in England. A few years later
we find Caxton ' emprinting ' " The Dictes and
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Secretary and Student
notable wise sayings of the Philosophers, trans-
lated out of French by Antony Wydeville, Earl
Rivers."
Before this happened, however, there were troubles
and misfortunes for the royal house of Burgundy
which undoubtedly affected Caxton. The fiery Duke,
well-named le Temeraire, was bent on annexing the
province of Lorraine, which separated his Burgundian
dominions from those of the Netherlands. He also
desired to seize Provence, once part of the old
Burgundian kingdom. These ambitions stirred up
powerful enemies : the Swiss League of the border
Cantons, the Duke of Austria, and the King of France.
Then occurred an alliance which at first appeared
chivalrous and fair. The English King shall we
say in return for Burgundy's hospitality in the days
of his exile ? brought over an army to help the Duke
in his great designs. Charles, rash as ever, failed to
meet his ally at Calais, and the artful French King,
Louis XI, induced Edward to throw over the Duke of
Burgundy and to takes sides with France. The in-
glorious Treaty of Pecquigny in 1475 ratified this, and
Edward returned home the richer by an immense sum
of money and the promise of a yearly ' tribute ' of ten
thousand pounds. Two years later Duke Charles was
killed in battle, his duchy was annexed by France, and
his daughter Mary ruled over the Netherlands. We hear
no more of the Duchess Margaret for some years, and
probably from this time Caxton 's service in the ducal
household came to an end, and he gave himself up
entirely to the mastery and practice of the art of
printing.
59
William Caxton
It was at this period that Caxton is believed to
have married. Probably his bride was the daughter
of some substantial Flemish burgher or Burgundian
merchant, and by this time Caxton would himself
have become almost Flemish. His early interest in
books and later studies in translating lead us to sup-
pose him to have had a considerable gift for languages
in spite of the modest way in which he speaks of his
attainments. He evidently did not become a rich
man, as many merchants have done, but he seems to
have cared more for other things than for money, and
to have pursued generously his private hobbies as
well as his daily trade. His reading of the high
romances of olden days strengthened this bent of his
mind, and we find him, some years later, upbraiding
knights and gentlemen for spending their time in
vain and foolish pleasures and for shunning all worthy
contests of strength and skill. He presses upon his
readers to note how, in the histories of King Arthur,
" may be seen noble chivalry, courtesy, humanity,
friendliness, hardiness, love and friendship, as well as
cowardice, murder, hate and sin. Do after the good
and leave the evil," he concludes, " and it shall bring
you to good fame and renown/'
Caxton was not, however, in any sense a Dry-as-
dust. He says plainly elsewhere that, ' In my
judgment, histories of noble feats and valiant acts of
arms and war which have been achieved of old time
. . . are as well for to see and know their valiantness
. . . as it is to occupy the ken and study overmuch
in books of contemplation." There is preserved in
a private library a scrap of parchment with some of
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Secretary and Student
Caxton's handwriting upon it. Carefully elaborated
flourishes adorn the capital letters, and the neat
characters stand in even lines, minute but clear,
with the so frequently occurring phrase, ' translated
by me William Caxton at Westminstere."
CHAPTER V: The New
Invention
*
DURING the years 1471-6 Caxton journeyed
through various German towns, and finally
settled at Cologne, perhaps in partnership
with one of the printers of that city. His impatience
with the labour of writing and the slowness of hand-
work in book production was stronger than ever, so
that though he was approaching middle age he turned
himself to the mastery of the new art. Apparently
by this time he possessed several valuable manuscript
translations, the work chiefly of his own hand and
brain ; but it was no small enterprise for a man of
mature years to embark upon a new trade and that
one which might be expected to develop but very
slowly. Probably during the latter part of the time
he was collecting the necessary implements and
materials, prescriptions for the making of ink, and
particulars as to obtaining parchment and vellum, all
of which would involve much trouble and expense.
In his first printed book he announced, with openness
and simplicity : ' I have practised and learned at my
great charge and dispense, to ordain this said book
in print."
He appears to have undertaken at about the same
time the task of translating into French, and then of
printing, a curious book, then a century old, written
in Latin by a certain Brother Bartholomew, entitled
DC Proprietatibus Rerum. Though Latin was still
the language of scholarship and of devotion, French
was the tongue of the noble patrons of the new art
62
The New Invention
in Flanders, and, to a certain extent, in England.
Thomas Warton, the old historian of English poetry,
reminds us of our debt to French Literature when he
says : " By means of French translations, our country-
men, who understood French much better than Latin,
became acquainted with many useful books which
they would not otherwise have known." The
Metamorphoses of Ovid \vas another work translated
by the busy Caxton ; a manuscript copy of this is
one of the treasures of Magdalen College Library,
Cambridge.
Translation from the classics had become a pursuit
in favour with men of rank even before Earl Rivers
produced his Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers in
1477. The Earl of Worcester, who was beheaded during
the brief Lancastrian supremacy in 1470, had already
translated Cicero's De Amicitia ; the companion work,
De Senectute, Caxton himself afterward translated. But
the most famous of the early books printed by Caxton
was The Game and Playe of the Chesse. This was a
very curious work of a French priest, in which, under
the guise of a description of how to play chess, there
was introduced a considerable amount of moral
teaching. Caxton printed it at Cologne in the original
French, with woodcuts of the king, the queen, the
fool, and the knight. The letterpress explained how
a philosopher pursuaded a cruel king of Babylon to
amend his ways by teaching him to play chess and by
explaining to him that the pieces and the moves
were symbolical of the right and peaceful pursuits of
the nation, from the men of highest degree to those
of the lowest. Next were described the offices and
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William Caxton
duties of a king and a queen, the characteristics of
the fool (in English changed to the bishop) , the knight
and the rook, and then very fully the classes of
people represented in the eight pawns. The first
class consisted of the tillers of the earth ; the second of
smiths and metal-workers ; the third of advocates,
notaries, and cloth-makers ; the fourth of merchants
and exchangers ; the fifth of physicians, spicers, and
apothecaries ; the sixth of taverners and victuallers ;
the seventh of city guards, toll-takers, and customs
officers ; and the eighth of messengers, couriers, and
' players at the dice.'
By the year 1475 the condition of things in the
Flemish and Burgundian towns was sad in the extreme.
Duke Charles the Bold had persisted in one warlike
extravagance after another until the once-prosperous
towns of his dominions were drained of their wealth
by taxation and trade losses. In England things
were more peaceful, King Edward IV having, on
his restoration, completely crushed by confiscations
and executions the Lancastrian baronage and silenced
their sympathizers, while interfering little in the
affairs of the rest of the nation. He was by nature,
as so many warlike heroes have been, luxurious and
pleasure-loving, and, when not engaged in some
violent martial exercise, he was content to live an idle
and self-indulgent life. He had replaced the extinct
or fallen baronage of his predecessors' time with a
new class of his own creation, in which, naturally
enough, the family of his queen came foremost.
The greatest trouble of his reign had been the
treacherous conduct of his brother, the Duke of
The New Invention
Clarence, who had systematically intrigued against
him. The death of Clarence was in late years generally
attributed to the King or to his influence, though at
the time there was no one of sufficient daring or in-
tegrity to assert the fact. The King's expedition to
Calais in 1475 on behalf of the Duke of Burgundy,
his sister's husband and previously his own host and
protector, and his inglorious return laden with ' tribute '
from the King of France, were all of a piece with the
political methods of the time. The English people at
large might well be satisfied to be spared the drain of
heavy war-loans, and under the peaceful conditions
that were established trade and national prosperity
were progressing well.
Thus it was that in 1476 William Caxton returned
to England, the bringer of a new art and the bearer
of strange treasures in heavy chests and coffers, such
as precious rolls of manuscript, phials of pigments
and powders, and various implements of wood and
metal, besides (most valuable of all !) a case of metal
dies. Within his mind, too, was a store of learning
and accumulated experience, and a quiet resolution
to establish himself in his native land and show his
countrymen the advantages of the great invention he
had mastered abroad. Although little is known of
his domestic affairs, we are sure that with him came
his wife Maud. Landing from the boat at Queenhithe,
or Dowgate, Caxton once again found himself in
London, after an absence of nearly thirty years.
No great alteration would be noticeable in the
appearance of the city : a few more brick houses,
fewer low wooden ones ; more windows in the larger
E 65
William Caxton
houses instead of shuttered apertures ; also more
division into separate rooms in the manors and great
houses, a ' parloir ' separate from the ' refectory ' in
monasteries, and rather more gorgeous style of dress
among the nobles, and a soberer one (if possible)
among persons of lesser rank ; these would be some
of the alterations, but, on the whole, London had not
changed greatly. Gaunt heads were still exposed on
the turrets of London Bridge, the Barbican, and
Temple Bar ; the river was still the great highway
of traffic, and the royal barges, nainted red, with
high pavilions and great figures ?.\ the prow, passed
up and down the river between Richmond and the
Tower. We may suppose that the open ' ditch ' of
Wall Brook had been covered in, in accordance with
the endeavour made nearly forty years before, when
Caxton's public-spirited master, Robert Large, be-
queathed a handsome legacy toward the work.
The trend of daily life and behaviour under the
growing prosperity of the people is shown in the
records of one of Edward IV's infrequent parliaments.
In order to check extravagance and display in dress
an Act of 1464 decreed that " No yeoman or any other
person under the degree of yeoman shall wear in the
apparel for his body, any bolster, nor stuffing of wool,
cotton, or caddis in his pourpoint or doublet, but a
lining only, according to the same." Another indica-
tion is given in the Chronicle of London, by William
Gregory ; a Papal decree in 1466 ordained that ' ' No
cordwainer shall make any pikes (the pointed toe
ornaments) more than two inches long, or sell shoes
on Sunday, or even fit a shoe upon a man's foot on
66
The New Invention
Sunday, on pain of excommunication. Neither shall
any cordwainer attend any fair on Sundays, under
the same penalty." This Bull was approved by the
King's Council and also confirmed by Act of Parlia-
ment, and a proclamation was made at Paul's Cross
to that effect. Apparently the cordwainers appealed
arainst the restriction in the interests of their trade,
and the men of fashion continued very largely to
ignore it.
One feature of mediaeval trade customs was the
rigorous limitation of workers to their own trades, and
even to certain specified branches of the same trade.
So strict were these that those who made boots and
shoes might not repair them ; those who made hats
might not make caps ; weavers and fullers might
sell only retail in their own town and might not go
beyond its limits to trade, as that would infringe the
rights of the merchants. Caxton had come back to
London, but he had stepped outside the boundaries
of his own trade ; he had to seek anew the ' freedom '
of the city.
The art of writing was, for many centuries, almost
the prerogative of the monastic orders. They and
the royal lawyers and scriveners practised the art
which hardly any other subject sought to master.
But with the decay of religious fervour, the consequent
ill-repute of some of the monasteries, and the slacken-
ing of the ' rule ' of industry and piety, together with
the increasing wealth and growing business inter-
course among the citizens in great towns, the old
monopoly existed no longer. It had, however, been
succeeded by another by the formation of ' guilds/
William Caxton
in which the bands of lay copyists were enrolled, and
who plied their trade in certain recognized places and
almost at certain fixed rates. One such was ' The
Brothers of the Pen/ another the ' Guild of Writers,'
yet another the ' Paul's Scriveners.' Their stations
were near the gates of the cathedral enclosure or at
the entrances of the great churches. Their dress was
almost uniform, consisting of a long, heavy, tight-
fitting cloak over a short tunic, the former with
capacious lining or ' sleeves ' in which sheets of
parchment could be carried ; an ink-horn hung from
the girdle, and one or two feathered ends of quills
were visible on the under tunic. A close cap on the
head, and soft leather shoes with dull-coloured hose
completed the attire of the professional ' writer.'
These men would undertake small tasks, such as
correspondence, or great ones, such as the copying
of an entire book. Sharing the pages among several
of the workers, they would accomplish the task in a
comparatively short time. We may easily under-
stand how cold would be the welcome extended by
this profession to the new art of printing, either in
London or in the German or Flemish cities. Caxton
was, therefore, unable to attempt to settle down in
the London of which he was a ' freeman ' ; his freedom
covered only the cloth-workers' trade. Yet he needed
a town, not a country district, and required also the
presence of people interested in books and wealthy
enough to buy them. Hence he betook himself to
Westminster, then, as formerly and for two centuries
later, easily accessible by river but separated from
London by three miles of almost impassable road.
68
A Scribe Writing
From a manuscript of the fifteenth century in the
British Museum
68
The New Invention
Journeying by river the traveller would embark
at Queenhithe, and after passing the wharves of the
city he would see the palaces of the nobles and bishops,
with their pleasaunces and gardens stretching down
to the strand, and kept private by the water-gates
at the foot of the steps. First, and most commanding,
stood Baynard's Castle, built by Duke Humphrey of
Gloucester fifty years before ; then the monastery of
the Black Friars ; the Convent of Bride Well, that of
the White Friars, then the Temple, just beyond the
city boundary, with its round church built on the
model of that over the Holy Sepulchre. Then came
the splendid Durham House ; the ruins of the Savoy
Palace, seat of John of Gaunt, destroyed in the Wat
Tyler riots of 1381 and not rebuilt until more than
a century had passed ; and York House, the residence
of another royal duke and famous in later history as
the birthplace of Francis Bacon. The landing-place at
Westminster was near the royal Palace, which dated
back to the Great Hall of William Rufus, close beside
the Abbey of St Peter.
The precincts of the Palace adjoined those of the
Abbey, and there was only a village beyond. The
Abbey and the Palace alike were self-contained,
providing, by means of enormous staffs of officials and
workers, all the necessaries of the residents within.
In later days the palace of the White Hall, standing
farther north, supplanted Westminster as a royal resi-
dence, but in Caxton's day the sovereigns used the
latter continually. Among the great group of buildings
comprising the Palace were the Exchequer Hall (with
prisons beneath it) for finance business, and the Star
69
William Caxton
Chamber for meetings of the king and his council.
There were also the Queen's Hall, the Nursery, the
King's Wardrobe, the Chandlery and the Almonry ;
and surrounding these in a great enclosure were
gardens, fishponds, vineries, granaries, and wort-yards.
Near the river were the barracks, the stables, the
mews, and the barns.
The Palace consisted rather of several connected
buildings than of one ; it comprised the state chambers
as well as houses for the king's privileged nobles and
high officers. Much of the building was timber,
finely-carved and well-proportioned ; there were lofty
roofs, pointed gables, the rich colours of stained glass
and painted walls ; bright tapestries and gay canopies,
and everywhere the heraldic bearings of royal owner
or aristocratic occupier. The courtyard and green-
sward of the Palace could accommodate all the
busy splendour of guests and tournaments, and
the entertainments of the frivolous company of
nobles and knights with which Edward surrounded
himself.
More important even than the Palace of Westminster
was the Abbey Church and its surrounding monastery.
In the latter half of the fifteenth century this ancient
Benedictine foundation was at the height of its power
and splendour. The Order had ever been renowned
for scholarship and a large school for boys occupied
one of the cloisters. Narrow desks, one behind
another, accommodated the young learners, who
were never permitted to speak to each other during
school hours or to use any languages other than Latin
or French.
70
JTke Neiv Invention
As in earlier days, the sons of nobles and even
royal princes were received in the abbot's household
for training ; the gentler practices of knighthood
supplemented the teaching of the school, while the
duties of waiting on their elders, holding torches
or lanterns, fetching and carrying implements,
and performing other small services, accustomed
them to some of the responsibilities of their future
positions.
Besides its school the Abbey was famous for its
scriptorium, wherein sat diligent monks copying
and illuminating books. In an ante-chamber the
steward and his clerks would be found keeping
the accounts and records of the Abbey farms, rents,
and expenditure ; in the abbot's private rooms his
secretaries and lawyers dealt with the Papal and
foreign correspondence or the communications from
the sovereign.
In common with all monasteries open hospitality
was offered in the great hall ; beyond this was the
refectory of the monks, who took their meals in silence
while a student or chorister read aloud from the
Fathers or the Martyrology. Crowds of poor way-
farers and mendicants were received and fed at stated
hours in the Almonry ; political offenders and their
attendants sought sanctuary within the monastery
grounds, finding refuge, if necessary, in the fortified
tower near the entrance, which no angry earl or
sovereign dared storm.
The abbot, as became his office, had some separate
and additional accommodation. The Jerusalem
chamber was part of his residence in the time of King
7 1
William Caxton
Edward IV ; the present dining-hall of the boys of
Westminster School was the abbot's refectory ; their
great schoolroom was his dormitory. Besides the
continual round of services in the stately church
(which began at two or three o'clock in the morning,
and ended only with Compline at eight at night) there
were not infrequently state ceremonials of one kind and
another in the Abbey. During Caxton's residence
abroad it had seen three coronations ; first, that of
Margaret of Anjou when she became the bride of
the young Henry VI in 1445 ; that of Edward IV
himself in 1461 ; and four years later that of his Queen,
Lady Elizabeth Grey.
Although in the years soon to come it was found
that many of the religious foundations had outlived
their usefulness, yet in 1476 they still formed centres
of learning and of the useful arts. Agriculture and
farming, primitive as was their condition, were
managed best by the conventual landowners ; the
knowledge and practice of medicine were largely in
their hands ; they sustained much of the cost of
draining land and making roads and bridges ; the
care of the poor and the sick and the education of the
young was entirely theirs.
To such a little kingdom within itself consisting
probably of not more than eighty professed monks
and novices, but with visitors, professional and house-
hold staff, servitors, helpers and dependents, number-
ing between three and four hundred persons came
Caxton in the year 1476. We must not suppose him
asking alms, favour or toleration ; he was prepared
to rent such part of their out-buildings as would serve,
72
The New Invention
and to add to the varied crafts of smith and chandler,
weaver and fuller, pewterer and potter, the new art
of printing. His settlement there, his methods of
work and what he accomplished will be told in later
chapters.
73
CHAPTER VI: At the
Red Pale
WE may be sure that Caxton had carefully
planned his proceedings and was confident
that the Abbot John of St Peter's, as the
head of a Benedictine monastery, would be interested
in the new invention for producing books. All fell
out as he desired. The large extent of the monastery
buildings and precincts made it almost like a little
town, and Caxton was given possession of certain
chambers in the outer buildings adjoining the Almonry.
This centre for wayfarers was near the principal gate ;
indeed it adjoined the Gate-house, a strong tower
built over the entrance. Here was a prison (for, like
the lay barons, each abbot and prelate had dungeons
or cells for offenders), and in close proximity was the
hospital for aged women, recently built by the charit-
able Countess of Richmond.
Thus in the shadow and seclusion of the Abbey
Church of St Peter, amid its various activities, was
planted the beginning of the new movement which
was to change so greatly the old life and thought.
But Caxton's chief idea was that in this powerful
shelter and gracious centre of learning he would be
free from vexatious restrictions and trade jealousies.
On the other hand, the new-comer was, no doubt,
a welcomed inmate of that cloistered city, as a traveller,
a man of affairs, and one who had occupied a respon-
sible position in connexion with the leading merchant-
guild, whose chief staple was at Westminster. We
may suppose that Caxton had with him one or two
74
At the Red Pale
copies of ' emprynted ' books, and we may well
believe that the clerks of the Abbey scriptorium
would be greatly interested in the mysterious art
by which ' many copies were begun in one day and
ended in one day."
The energetic worker let no grass grow under his
feet. As soon as his press could be put together,
some ink made, and the type set up, he issued a notice
in effect, an advertisement. This was couched in
an adroit form of words : ' If it please any man,
spiritual or temporal, to buy any Pyes of two and
three commemorations of Salisbury Use, emprynted
after the forme of the present letter, which ben well
and truly correct, let hym come to Westminstre in to
the Almonrye at the Red Pale and he shall have them
good chepe. Supplico stet cedilla." No advertise-
ment of modern times, however ingeniously con-
structed, could have more points of interest than
this fifteenth-century handbill. One precious copy
is now preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
The announcement which reads so curiously is of
a Directorium, showing clearly the ' commemorations '
of feast days falling within the great festivals of
Easter and Whitsuntide. As Easter is a ' movable '
feast, i.e. falling on different dates in different years,
the Ascension and Pentecost are movable also, \vhile
certain Saints' days are kept always on the same date.
The greater feasts have precedence, so that lesser
ones are transferred to other days if they come together.
In pre-printing days it was no easy matter to determine
the date of Easter for any year, and a great part of
mediaeval arithmetic, as studied in the cloister, had
75
William Caxton
been devoted to calculations by which Easter might
be found. But even in Caxton's day there was no
general circulation of calendars, and the ones com-
piled in the separate monasteries were, of course, in
script. Caxton was thus issuing a set of directions
for the observance of the feasts in due order, or as we
should now term it, an almanac. The peculiar term
' Pyes ' seems to have referred to existing manuscript
directories which, from abbreviations and alterations,
were obscure and difficult to read. Curiously enough
the word ' pie ' to-day is applicable to type indis-
criminately mixed, and thus connects the highly-
developed art of the present day with the small
beginnings of the first English printer.
This book was soon followed by others. Among
the earliest was the French version of the Histories of
Troy, as translated by Caxton's honoured friend,
Raoul le Fevre, chaplain to the Duke of Burgundy,
and done into English by Caxton himself " at
the commandement of the right hye, myghty and
vertuouse Pryncesse hys redoubted lady Margaret, by
the grace of God, Duchesse of Bourgoyne, of Brabant,
etc." Next appeared his English version of the
Life of Jason.
These ancient romances show only one of the forms
of literature in which Caxton was interested. Soon
he issued his translation of the Game and Playe of the
Chesse, dedicating it to the King's brother, the Duke
of Clarence, a young prince of unstable mind and
treacherous instincts. Perhaps Caxton, greatly daring,
hoped that the allegory in the book would win the
Duke to more upright courses. The inscription dis-
At the Red Pale
erectly assumes the best. " To the right noble, right
excellent and vertuous Prince George due of Clarence,
Erl of Warwick and of Salisburye, grete chamberlayn
of England and lieutenant of Ireland, oldest broder
of Kynge Edward by the grace of God Kynge of
England and of Fraunce your most humble servant
William Caxton amonge other your servantes sendes
unto you peas, helthe, joye and victorye upon your
Enemyes. Right highe puyssant and joyous and
vertuous desirs. Amen.
" Fynysshed the last day of Marche the yer of our
lord God a thousand foure hundred and lxxiiij.' J
Then in a prologue he continues : " For as much
as I have understand and knowe that ye are enclined
unto the comyn wele of the Kynge our seyde sovereign
lord, his nobles, lords and comyn people of his noble
royaume of England, and that ye serve gladly the
Inhabitations thereof enformed in good, vertuous,
profhtable, and honeste manners : In whiche your
noble persone with guydyng of your hows aboundeth
gyving light and ensample unto all others." And
it further says that the little book is printed in order
that its teachings " may be applied unto the morality
of the public weal, as well of the nobles and of the
common people, after the Game and Playe of the
Chesse."
We may imagine the Prince being shown a copy,
with the fair inscription standing neat and bold on
the first page, on one of his visits to the Red Pale.
And it soon became the fashion for the courtiers to
follow the example set by the King himself, and to
visit the travelled Englishman in order to watch the
77
William Caxton
mysterious process of which he was master. Caxton,
who had known King Edward during the less happy
days of his exile at his sister's court in Bruges, no
doubt rejoiced in the signs of peace and stability in
the government of England, while he also delighted
in the proofs of royal favour which he received.
For the King was a cultivated scholar, as lay learning
went, and was the first monarch since King Henry III
of whom this could be said. He was pleased to show
himself the patron of learning and the arts, and during
the latter years of his reign, when untroubled by
revolts and wars, he varied his unworthy amusements
and coarse pleasures with some occasional service to
intellectual things. His Queen's brother, Anthony
Woodville, Earl Rivers, perhaps first enlisted his
royal interest in Caxton, for his collection of Dictes
and notable wyse Sayings of the Philosophers was one
of the books printed at the Red Pale in the year
1477.
This style of writing is found in all countries at a
certain stage of literary development, and it formed a
stepping-stone from the indirect teaching and sugges-
tion of the fable to the sustained reasoning and argu-
ment of the treatise or the sermon. Short, detached
' sentences ' which expressed clearly some one phase
of truth and could be easily remembered were the
learned examples of instructive composition, as pro-
verbs or simple aphorisms were the popular ones.
The collection made and translated by Earl Rivers
was probably from the classical writers, Greek and
Latin ; another volume, however, was composed of
modern examples from the original writings of a learned
At the Red Pale
lady, Christine de Pisa, who was a notable figure at
the court of King Charles V of France in the latter
half of the fourteenth century.
Christine's collection of Morale Proverbes, in metre,
was most highly esteemed in her own day, and even
now, indeed, they take rank as admirable specimens
of early French literature. One of her most striking
productions was the Dittie de Jeanne d'Arc, though as
this was written in the year of the author's death,
1429, she knew only of the wonderful achievements
of the Maid. The monarch who had befriended
Christine had passed away, so also had his successor,
and the unworthy Charles VII was reigning when she
died. Her father had been an astronomer of note,
and during her early residence with him in France
she had married ; soon, however, she had been left
a widow. Her sentiments were strongly royalist,
and her religious thought in accordance with the
teachings of the Church. Hence she opposed what
may be called the ' free-thinking ' tendencies of her
day, which found expression in the second part of
the curious old poem, the Roman de la Rose.
A somewhat similar book of detached reflections
was Memorare Novissima : which treatetli of the Foure
laste Thinges, possibly compiled by the prior or sub-
prior of the Abbey, both of whom were noted scholars.
Still another was the Cnrial of Alain Chartier, an
eloquent writer at the Burgundian court in the days
of Duke Philip the Good. This consisted of moral
and political counsels and reflections expressed in the
clear, concise form to which the French tongue so
readily lends itself. The writer is said to have had
79
William Caxton
the best prose style of any before the sixteenth century.
A couplet in Caxton's version runs :
Ther is no dangyer but of a vylayn,
Ne pryde but of a poure man enryched.
It is interesting to find school books and one or
two books intended for children among the produc-
tions at the Red Pale during these early years. A
curious little book, Stans Piter ad Mensam, cast in
the difficult old Ballade Royale metre, consisted of
gentle admonitions as to right conduct and ended
with a number of ' Moral Distichs/ in parallel columns :
Aryse erly And to thy soupe soberly
Serue God deuoutly And to thy bed merrily
And be there jocondly
Go to thy mete appetently And slepe surely
And aryse temperately
The Chronicles of England and the Description of
Britain were the first history and geography books
to be printed in England. The former is taken from
the old Chronicle of Brute, ' ' emprinted by me William
Caxton In thabbey of Westmynstre by London
fynysshid and accomplisshid the X day of Juyn the
yere of thincarnacion of our Lord God M.CCCC.LXXX.
And in the XX yere of the regne of kyng Edward the
fourth " ; the latter is taken from the Polycronicon
of Ralph Higden. Caxton is supposed to have added
certain details to this, and after giving a descrip-
tion of England's rivers and cities, provinces and
bishoprics, he mentions the wonders of Stonehenge.
" There be great stones and wondrous huge, and be
80
At the Red Pale
reared on high, as it were gates set upon other gates ;
nevertheless it is not known clearly nor aperceived
how and wherefore they be so areared and so
wonderful hanged."
Another book was a version of Cato's Morals, or,
as Caxton puts it, The Book called Caton a favourite
school book of the Middle Ages for the teaching of
Latin and moral maxims. A canon of Westminster
Abbey translated this into English and Caxton printed
it. It ends :
Here haue I fonde that shall you guyde and lede
Straight to gode fame and leve you in hir hous.
In his preface Caxton wrote : ' In my judgment it is
the best book to be taught to young children in schools ;
and also to people of every age it is full convenient if
it be well understanden."
Caxton had very clear ideas as to the responsibility
of printing books and thus making them more easily
accessible to people in general. He shared in the
general prejudice, which held when only a small
minority could read, against making common know-
ledge the opinions of certain writers. Among such
was part of Virgil's JEneid, which he translated into
English through French ; he speaks of the difficulty
he found in using suitable terms to express the meaning
a difficulty which any translator, however brilliant,
will acknowledge. In the preface he declares : " For-
asmuch as this present book is not for a rude
uplandish man to labour therein nor to read it, but
only for a clerk or noble gentleman that feeleth and
understandeth in feats of arms, in love, in noble
F 81
William Caxton
chivalry. . . .' : Similarly he desired to limit the
readers of his translation of Cicero's Book on Old Age.
As a foreword he says : This book is not requisite
nor eke convenient for every rude and simple man,
which understandeth not science nor cunning, and for
such as have not heard of the noble policy and prudence
of the Romans ; but for noble, wise, and great lords,
gentlemen and merchants, that have been and daily
be occupied in matters touching the public weal. . . ."
A special interest attaches to the printing of the
curious old book, The Mirrour of the World, or Thym-
mage of the Same. This was a typical mediaeval
treatise, containing descriptions of a variety of things :
the Seven Liberal Arts, or Foundations of Learning
based upon the old Roman trivium and quadrivium
(Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric in the one, and Arith-
metic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy in the other),
and ending with an account of the earthly paradise.
In the preface to this Caxton writes : " The hearts of
nobles, eschewing of idleness at such times as they
have some other virtuous occupations in hand, ought
to exercise them in reading, studying and visiting the
noble feats and deeds of the sage and wise men . . .
and among other this present book, which is called
the Image or Mirror of the World, ought to be visited,
read and known by cause it treateth of the world and
of the wonderful division thereof. ... I have made
it so plain that every man reading may understand
it, if he advisedly and attentively read it or hear it."
The enthusiastic worker had been moved to commend
the book so highly as the result of his labours, for he
had not himself chosen it, as was generally the case.
82
At the Red Pale
He was commissioned to produce it by an esteemed
member of the Guild of Cloth-workers, to which he
himself belonged, as a gift to Lord Hastings. It was
illustrated with woodcuts, and they serve to show us
the style and manner of the dress and behaviour of
the day.
The literature of France was laid under contribution,
not only for works of romantic interest or religious
import, but also for a type of w r riting peculiarly its
own. The History of Reynard the Fox was a collec-
tion of satires upon the clergy and the nobility, woven
into the form of beast-stories, and was the work of
various authors, for one hundred and fifty years, from
the middle of the twelfth century onward. But,
happily, there was no need to seek always in other
literatures for material. We read that Caxton was a
devoted lover of Chaucer's \vorks, and when it appeared
that his first edition of the Cauntcrburye Tales had many
errors and imperfections, he had the type set up
entirely afresh in order to produce the work worthily.
He wrote of Chaucer thus in an epilogue to one of
his books : ' In all his works he excelleth in my
opinion all other writers in our English. For he
writeth no void words, but all his matter is full of
high and quick sentences, to whom ought to be given
laud and praising for his noble making and writing."
It seems that Caxton and Chaucer were in some
ways alike in character and temperament, except
that the poet had a buoyancy and merriment of spirit
which apparently Caxton lacked. His translation of
the Consolations of Philosophy of the old Roman
philosopher, Boethius, especially stirred Caxton to
83
William Caxton
admiration ; " first translator of this book into English
and embellisher in making the said language ornate
and fair, which shall endure perpetually ; and there-
fore he ought to be eternally remembered."
This noble Roman of the late fifth and early sixth
centuries was counsellor to the Emperor Theodoric,
but after many years of faithful service he became
distrusted by his imperial master and was cast into
prison. To fortify his soul in the noisome dungeon
in which he was confined, he set about a task which
should lift him above present miseries ; this was
nothing less than the recounting, under the form of
a Vision, the many Consolations of Philosophy revealed
to him by a beautiful Presence. His book was the
delight of all mediaeval thinkers and the model of
many later allegories.
In the loft of St Alban's Grammar School was dis-
covered, only about half a century ago, a perfect copy
of Caxton's Boethius, soaked with rain and decaying
with age, but it was intact and the leaves were uncut.
It is now carefully treasured among the Caxton books
in the British Museum.
CHAPTER VII: King
Edward IV
WHEN Caxton set up his press at the Red
Pale in the Almonry at Westminster, the
monarch, Edward IV, was a man in the
prime of life, gay of demeanour, luxurious in his habits,
and fond of the pageantry of court ceremonial. His
rule was by that time unquestioned ; his ^baronage
was almost entirely of his own creation-. c.;id the
people at large were content with a sovereign who
had shown himself to have no lust for war, and who
raised his revenue without oppressive taxation. By
temperament idle and insensitive, he bore for a
long time with what seems extraordinary patience the
treacherous devices of his brother George, the Duke of
Clarence. But when at length fully roused he took
drastic steps and showed himself stayed by no scruple.
He arraigned the Duke before Parliament in 1478 on
the charge of treasonable plotting with the King's
enemies (the Lancastrians). The session opened, as
usual, with a sermon by the Chancellor, the Arch-
bishop of York, on the text, ' He beareth not the
sword in vain," and the preacher illustrated it with
many examples of punishment inflicted on those who
broke their oath of fealty.
There was no opposition and but little discussion ;
the Commons approved and the Peers passed the
sentence. Some few months before this the wretched
Clarence had fled from the Court, for, besides his
intrigues against the King, he was perpetually quarrel-
ling with his brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
85
William Caxton
The brothers differed completely in temperament and
disposition. The elder was unstable, peevish, dis-
contented and, though ambitious, unable to persist in
any responsible action. Gloucester was content to be
the right hand of the King, to manage his steward-
ship, to carry out his behests and desires, and
quietly and efficiently to make himself indispensable.
In his position as Great Chamberlain he would have
ample opportunity for offering slights and provocations
to his irritable and wayward brother, and it is possible
that he used it.
The Great Hall at Westminster was the scene of the
attainder trial. King Edward was present and heard
the clerk read the skilfully-worded charge, ending
with the protestation that ' the King remembering
ever . . . the tender love which of youth he bare
unto him could have found it in his heart upon due
submission to have forgiven him, but that he had
shown himself incorrigible. And moreover since that
the King must defend his surety and royal issue,
although he be right sorry, yet considering justice a
virtue, he doth hereby declare George, Duke of
Clarence, guilty of high treason/' The accused denied
and protested, and demanded to be allowed ' wager
of battle.' From his prison in the Tower came
vague rumours, and presently it was known that
he had met his death by some form of violence, on
the King's responsibility, though ' of his clemency '
he had not required the indignity of a public
execution. This was the last occasion for five years
on which King Edward summoned a parliament,
and the sharp, summary dealing of the monarch
86
King Edward I V
had by this time terrorized his foes into silent
impotence.
Looking back to the time of Caxton's arrival in
England, it seems that it was the period when perhaps
the relations between members of the royal house
bore the nearest semblance to peace. The King and
his brothers would be seen in public together, and on
one occasion at least they journeyed together to
Westminster to see the ' emprinting presse ' in the
Almonry. We may fancy we see the royal party
sweeping into the quiet precincts, with their train
of nobles and gentlemen, pages and attendants, and
a noisy rabble of hounds and pet monkeys on leash.
The King, ' head and shoulders taller than the people/
of commanding presence, magnificently attired and
wearing heavily-ringed gloves, we may think of as
jesting with those near him, and occasionally putting
curt, clear questions as he scrutinized the clever,
clumsy mechanism at work. Near him, one on either
hand, would stand the unbrotherly dukes, murmur-
ing some comment or query into the royal ear
Clarence, restless, peevish, and with harsh shrill voice ;
Gloucester, dark, scornful, moving stiffly with a slight
limp, and with a perpetual gesture of shouldering off
his senior.
Probably the little Prince of Wales, then about
six years of age, was of the party. Rather over-
weighted by his governor and councillors he might
have been, but with boyish interest he would watch
the murky helpers of the wonderful Caxton as they
manipulated their ' dabbers ' or turned the great
creaking handle of the screw. And then the breathless
William Caxton
eagerness of the whole party as a fair sheet was
withdrawn from the press, all evenly ' emprinted '
and never a word framed with the pen ! There is a
picture which shows Earl Rivers on bended knee
offering to the King a printed copy of his Dictes and
Sayings of the Philosophers, but Prince Edward was
not on that occasion one of the party.
By the time that the King's vengeance had descended
and the Duke of Clarence had disappeared, the Prince
of Wales was living away from his parents, with his
governor, the Earl Rivers, at Ludlow Castle. There
he had quite a Court household, with chancellor and
chamberlain, treasurer and steward, and a staff of
purveyors and attendants. Why at Ludlow ? J ' we
may ask. Because there were threatenings of up-
risings amongst the Welsh, and it was thought that
to have the Prince in residence on the Marches would
tend to calm and still revolt. The task of Earl Rivers
as Lord President of the Council of the Marches was
no easy one just then.
The revengeful King, \vho hesitated at no crime
to remove a political foe, showed himself gentle and
considerate in his plans for his heir. He himself
drew up the series of regulations by \vhich the young
Prince's life was to be ordered during his minority.
His hours of study, his amusements, his rest, and his
table were minutely arranged. ' He is to rise early,
to attend Mass, to begin directly after his meal some
form of virtuous learning. ' While he dines ' noble
stories ' are to be read to him ; afterward he is to
be encouraged in all seemly sports and to be sent
' merry and joyous ' to bed. For companions he
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King Edward I V
is to have the sons of noble lords and gentlemen,
and neither he nor they may in any wise be per-
mitted to pass their days in idleness or in foolish
pursuits. Prince Edward seems to have been a fair
and comely boy, of a gentle disposition and sensitive
to displeasure or rough jesting, immensely admiring
his jovial, handsome father, though not a little afraid
of him. The heir to the throne had a younger brother
Richard, who was five years of age, a merry, fearless
child, delighting in animals and noisy sports. At the
age of one year he had been created Duke of York
by his proud father, and before he was five he was
betrothed to the little Lady Anne, daughter of the
Duke of Norfolk, and the last of the dukes of the name
of Mowbray.
A few days before the assembling of the Parliament
\vhich was to try the Duke of Clarence for treason,
there took place in St Stephen's chapel of the Abbey
a stately ceremony of betrothal. All the great nobles
of the realm were present ; the bishops and clergy ;
the Lord Chancellor and his suite ; Prince Richard's
sisters, and the Prince of Wales. The Lady Elizabeth
and Lady Mary were both older than the Prince of
Wales ; next came the Lady Cecily, and then Richard,
the hero of the occasion. The next in age \vere the
Lady Margaret and the Lady Anne, who appear to
have been left at home in the royal nursery at Sheen.
The Duke of Gloucester, as Great Chamberlain, was
controller of the ceremony ; the Duke of Clarence was
away, but closely \vatched by the King's myrmidons
in readiness for the coming trial.
A splendid procession swept from the council
William Caxton
chamber to the chapel; heralds, trumpeters, and
great dignitaries preceded the little central figure ;
behind him walked, on the right, the tall imperious
King, and on the left the Prince of Wales. With
slow and stately steps, and at a pace accommodated
to that of the tiny satin-clad Prince Richard, the
gorgeous line entered the chapel, within which, in
the royal enclosure, there waited the Queen and the
young princesses with their train of ladies and knights.
From another door entered the little Lady Anne,
barely up to the elbow of the kindly Earl Rivers,
who supported her on one side while the Earl of Lincoln
supported her on the other. Her heavily-embroidered
gown of white satin, besprinkled with seed pearls,
was a miniature copy of what her mother might have
worn ; its long train was borne by six pages, eldest
sons of peers, companions of the Prince of Wales.
With the conclusion of the ceremony there was a
splendid admission of youthful knights, when numbers
of the gallant boys were presented with their spurs.
Then followed banquets and tourneys, jousts and gay
spectacles for all the aristocratic beholders. If the
principal personages in whose honour it was all
devised wondered what it was about, we may at least
hope that they enjoyed the glitter and display and had
some intelligible merry-making of their own in their
respective nurseries when it was all over.
King Edward delighted in all forms of ceremonial,
and carried them out and exacted their careful
fulfilment with whole-hearted thoroughness. His
royal predecessor, King Henry VI, in his ill-health,
anxiety, and preoccupation with other matters,
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King Edward I V
maintained but a slovenly Court, although a very
extravagant one. Very different was that of
Edward IV ; carefully ordered, well administered,
and strictly controlled, it gave good return in magnifi-
cence and impressi veness for its lavish expense.
His eldest daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, born
in 1465, had her own little Court and household.
When she \vas only two years of age manors and
estates were settled on her, and until the birth of the
Prince of Wales four years later, she was regarded
by her ambitious father, not only as the Princess
Royal, but as heiress apparent to the throne. An
attempt was made to betroth her to the young Prince
Edward, son of Henry VI and Queen Margaret, the
Lancastrian Prince of Wales. This falling through,
she was betrothed to the Dauphin, afterward
Louis XII of France. She and her sister Mary, who
was only a year younger, had great trouble and care
bestowed on their education. They had French and
Spanish governesses, and learned to speak and to
read those languages ; accomplished copyists were
employed to teach them to write ; foreign musicians
taught them to play on the harp and the melle (the
precursor of the violin), and Master Walter Halliday,
the president of the King's minstrels, instructed them
in singing.
Their royal father appears to have loved music.
He liberally supported the ' gentlemen ' and the
' children ' of the chapel royal who sang the services,
and not only permitted the existence of a band of
minstrels in the royal household, but established it
as a ' Gild of Music ' ; furthermore, he required their
William Caxton
attendance upon him wherever he resided. Two
minstrels formed part of the Prince of Wales' household
at Ludlow, and the committing to memory of some of
their verses formed part of his lighter exercises. Danc-
ing was also one of the accomplishments of the young
princesses ; this we learn from an account preserved
of the festivities held on the occasion of a visit of
Louis de Bruges, envoy of Charles, Duke of Burgundy.
The King seems to have delighted to show honour
to his Burgundian guest, and to return with lavish
hand the hospitality which had been shown him
during his exile in 1471. After supper, we read, he
was taken to the Queen's apartments, where she and
her ladies were singing, playing and dancing. " Also
the King danced with my lady Elizabeth his eldest
daughter/' says the enraptured writer. The next
day they arose early, sang matins and heard Mass in
the King's chapel, and then had " grete sporte ' in
the Park adjoining Windsor Castle ; here, whether as
prize, trophy or mere splendid gift, the Sieur Louis
de Bruges had presented to him by the King, with
many courtly compliments, a royal crossbow, with
strings of silk, and a quiver of gilt-headed arrows,
all enclosed in a case covered with purple velvet, and
with the royal arms and badges emblazoned thereon.
Then there followed deer-hunting in Windsor forest,
a visit to the King's private gardens and vineyard,
and a return to the Castle in time for evensong. In
the late afternoon was a grand banquet given in her
own apartments by the Queen ; again the young
' Dauphiness/ as the King loved to call her, was
present, and was at the High Table on the da'is, to
92
King Edward IV
which Sieur Louis was invited. At a long table, placed
lengthwise, was a great array of ladies, ' seated all at
one side/ facing into the room and served from thence.
Still farther removed were the Queen's gentlewomen,
similarly seated, and at corresponding tables were
the attendants and servitors of the honoured guest.
Again, after the banquet, there was dancing, when the
Lady Elizabeth had for her partner her indulgent
father, and later she had the Duke of Buckingham,
her uncle, who had married the Queen's sister Catherine,
but was still uncomfortably Lancastrian by tradi-
tion and instinct. The King's brother, Richard of
Gloucester, was Lord Chamberlain at this time, and
after the entertainment, at about nine of the clock,
he showed the gratified envoy to the suite of rooms
prepared for his private use.
Carpeted floors and silken and tapestried hangings
adorned three stately rooms ; others were arranged
for sleeping. In one was a canopied frame, with a bed
of down, silken sheets, fine fustian coverings, and a
counterpane worked with cloth of gold and lined with
ermine ; in another was a couch, with a feather bed,
tented hood, linen hangings, and, in a corner, that
most unusual fitting, a cupboard. In yet another
room were baths, with white hangings. After their
baths and toilet the guests were offered various
delicacies, green ginger, syrups, comfits and hippocras
before going to bed. These dainty and careful arrange-
ments, and especially the fitting and furnishing of
the curtains and hangings, were under the personal
direction of the Queen as to patterns, making, and
placing. This is a very pretty instance of the notable
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William C ax ton
housewifery of the royal ladies of our land, and we
may imagine the courtly compliments of which the
Burgundian envoy would deliver himself as one
sumptuous item after another was displayed.
In the year 1478, not many months after the
betrothal of little Prince Richard and the disappear-
ance of the Duke of Clarence, the Queen gave birth
to another son, who was named George apparently
the fondness for family names was stronger than the
distaste for painful associations 1 His father created
him Duke of Bedford as soon as he was christened,
but the little fellow lived only till the following March.
Then the sturdy Richard, aged six, was given the
vacant Dukedom of Bedford, and also made Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland, with power to appoint a deputy !
This was an office formerly held by the Duke of
Clarence.
The King's political judgment, not merely his
ambition, no doubt dictated the bestowal of great
offices and dignities upon his young children, as well
as upon the members and connexions of his wife's
family. The measures tended to give an air of stability
to his throne and power, and as they were supported
by his observance of strict laws of homage and courtesy
to all persons connected with him, there was built up
a habit of respect and ceremony which gave dignity
to the royal house. The early plans of the great Earl
of Warwick for him included, \ve remember, a marriage
with the Princess of France. The young King's im-
petuous alliance with the Lady Elizabeth Grey, a
widow, and a member of the Woodville, or Wydvylle,
family, might have been a crushing blow to his kingly
94
King Edward IV
ambitions. There were always some people who
would remember that he had chosen as his wife a
lady who was but an attendant in the ante-chamber
of the haughty Queen Margaret, Henry VI's wife.
Hence, to surround himself and her, their children
and her relatives with pomp and ceremony was
at least a way of silencing tongues and perhaps of
dimming memories.
Some memoirs kept by a foreign visitor, who came
as ambassador from the King of Bohemia, describe
with awe the strict etiquette of the English Court.
Very great reverence is paid always to the King ;
even the greatest noblemen kneel before him. At a
banquet the King's stool was central and alone ; none
spoke without obeisance ; in drinking, the cup was
raised and solemn salutation made to the King."
Similarly the Queen maintained her state in her private
apartments, where he was permitted to visit her.
Her Majesty " sat on a golden stool alone at her table ;
her mother and the King's sister ' (the Lady Anne
was still unmarried) ' stood far below her. And
when the Queen spoke to her mother or to the Lady
Anne, they kneeled down every time before her. . . .
And all her ladies and maids, and those who waited
upon her, even great lords, had to kneel while she was
eating, which continued three hours." Then, as we
have seen before, there was dancing after the banquet :
' the Lady Anne danced with two Dukes, and the
beautiful dances and reverences performed before the
Queen the like I have never seen," says the delighted
narrator. " After the dance the King's singing men
came in and sang." Probably some of the songs
95
William C ax ton
were in a new form of composition, recently made
known by Belgian composers and afterward to be
popularized as the ' Madrigal.'
This entertainment perhaps took place at Sheen
Palace, for during his stay the ambassador was taken
to London on the King's barge and shown his fort-
palaces, the Tower and Baynard's Castle, and the
treasures of his armouries.
The year 1478 was a busy one, but by no means
only in receptions and courtly ceremonials. The
King had always interested himself greatly in the
trade of the country, and though his methods were
strongly ' Protectionist ' (as we should now call them)
they suited that stage of development of national
industries ; for example, the forbidding of the ex-
portation of wool led to its better manufacture into
cloth. One provision, which has been echoed from
time to time, was that which prohibited the shipping
of merchandise in ' foreign bottoms/ and this led to
the formation of a fleet, which was used indifferently
for purposes of war, of trading, and of the King's
voyages. The Mary Reddiffe, 500 tons, and the
Mary and John, 900 tons, both Bristol-built ships,
were two of the largest in the fleet. Not only were
there treaties of trade drawn up with Burgundy and
Flanders, but also with several other continental
countries, including Denmark and Portugal.
One province in which the King's activity was
marked v/as, as might be expected, that of building.
During the twelve peaceful years of his absolute
rule the Wall of the City of London was rebuilt, the
Tower was enlarged and repaired, and the palace of
King Edward I V
Whitehall was restored and ornamented. The Chapel
of the Knights, dedicated to St George at Windsor, was
also rebuilt and much enlarged. Some of the neces-
sary expense the arbitrary King defrayed by the seizure
of endowments belonging to King's College, Cam-
bridge, and its school, Eton College. He enlarged
and beautified his palaces at Eltham and Sheen,
favourite residences of his Queen, and strengthened
Dover Castle. His wife took under her patronage
Queen Margaret's foundation at Cambridge University,
and founded another hall, calling it St Catherine's
the name which she gave to her little daughter who
was born in 1479. Also for the first time in English
history a Poet Laureate was appointed as one of the
officials of the King's court.
97
CHAPTER VIII: The Royal
House of York
THE year 1480 was notable for two events
concerning the royal family. One was
that another little princess was born and
was christened Bridget, the other that the Duchess-
Dowager Margaret of Burgundy paid a visit to her
English home. Her husband, Duke Charles the Bold,
had died in battle three years before, and her step-
daughter Mary succeeded to his Flemish dominions.
The greater part of the Duchy proper had been
annexed by the French king, leaving only Franche
Comte, or the Free County of Burgundy, to the
heiress. She had married Maximilian, the son of
the Emperor Frederick III, and thus a strong
German influence was brought to bear in securing
the Low Countries from the ambitious designs of
Louis XI.
Their son Philip was a possible husband for the
Princess Anne of England, fourth daughter of King
Edward, now aged five years, and a proposal was
made that the English King should shake himself
free from the French obligations and become the ally
of Flanders. But Edward hesitated, as the French
pension of fifty thousand crowns, stipulated in the
Treaty of Pecquigny, was faithfully paid by Louis,
and Maximilian \vas slow to undertake the same scale
of bribery as well as to promise marriage estates to
the little Philip. The King of France tried to interest
the Dowager-Duchess in a French alliance, and to
counteract this the visit to England was proposed.
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The Royal House of York
Great preparations were made for her reception, and
in the month of July she arrived.
There was put at her disposal a fortified house not
far from Baynard's Castle, at Cole Harbour, a name
still preserved in London in St Nicholas' Church,
Cole Abbey, and Coldharbour Lane, off Thames Street.
The house was hung with rich tapestries and furnished
with couches, stools, chests, and a complete array of
kitchen implements. One of the royal stewards was
put in charge, and litter and fodder in enormous
quantities were provided for her horses. Beyond
this, splendid new liveries with the Edwardian badge
were supplied for her attendants ; they were made of
silver and gold cloth, and velvet purple and black.
Housing for her steeds in procession were also ready,
and a barge for her service, with the boatmen in
royal liveries, swung at the harbour stairs. The style
of dress at this period for retainers and servants was
that known as parti-coloured, i.e. one side of the
costume, leg, sleeve, trunk might be of dull red
perhaps, and the other of tawny ; or one side of dull
blue and the other of grey ; the tawny and the grey
being the humble equivalents of the gold and silver of
aristocratic dress.
We are sure that during her stay, which lasted for
ten months, the Duchess was taken along the river
to Westminster to see the working of the ' emprinting
presse ' at the Red Pale. Caxton's Description of
Britain appeared in that year, so that perhaps the
Duchess witnessed the actual printing of some of the
sheets, and would learn with interest that it was the
compilation of her sometime secretary, who had
99
William Caxton
resumed his labours of translation years before at
her dread command. Undoubtedly the Castle of
Fotheringay, the old home of King Edward and the
birthplace of the Duchess herself, would have come
in for some description. Probably, too, Ludlow
Castle and the ' Marches ' which it commanded were
described, for there the King had spent some years
of his youthful life and had seen his father entertain
King Henry VI, on one occasion at least, within its
walls.
Other and more exciting amusements were devised
for the Duchess during her stay. The ordinary
accounts of the royal household, and especially for
the ' wardrobe/ are much swollen during the year
1480 undoubtedly through the expenditure incurred
for the Burgundian lady. Princess Elizabeth (still
called the ' Dauphiness,' although the French king
hung back strangely from the alliance), now aged
nearly fifteen, had a roll of cloth of gold for a robe ;
the Prince of Wales received a similar roll of white
cloth, while Prince Richard had a saddle and equip-
ment for riding, with apparently a complete outfit
in velvet, satin, and sarsenet. By this time he would
have quitted the nursery and the ladies' bower, and
for some part of the year at least would be residing
in a great household, for this in mediaeval times was
the equivalent of the Public School. Perhaps he was
placed in the care of the Archbishop of York, perhaps
in that of the Duke of Northumberland, and there
he would begin to learn the duties of noble boyhood
and the few book-subjects of the time. The young
princes and their sisters would certainly have been
100
The Royal House of York
permitted to share in some of the festivities of that
gay summer. There would be tourneys and jousts
on Tothill Fields, near Westminster Palace ; hunting
in Windsor Forest ; hawking on the Essex Marshes
and the low-lying fields in Westminster, now known
as Pimlico. Even to visit the chief royal falconry
in the great Mews (near to where the National Gallery
now stands) would be a delightful treat. There
highly trained birds clung pensively to stout perches,
some fiercer ones chafed, never without their jesses ;
young falcons were being taught the rudiments of
good manners on the wrist, and fluffy little goshawks
-most treasured of all tumbled about in cosy nests.
The inspection would be full of pleasure for the privi-
leged young people. Then there were the animals
in the Tower Enclosure the King's leopards, three
lions, a dromedary, and a cage of marmosets. Always,
too, there was the pleasant river-journey in the gaily-
painted royal barge, manned by stalwart rowers in
the bright liveries of the King. The red and blue
oars gleamed in the sunshine, the King's minstrels,
ensconced in a tower on deck, played merry airs ;
heralds and trumpeters blew fanfares of warning,
and within the canopied enclosure amidships reclined
the genial Monarch, his Queen and their august visitor,
with some privileged younger members of the family
and the great ladies and nobles of the court. Stately
swans glided up and down the stream ; ducks and
waterfowl gathered in the sedges ; cargo boats, rowed
by swarthy crews, crept slowly along to the wharves,
and laden ferry-boats made their way with difficulty
from bank to bank.
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William C ax ton
The Duchess Margaret, who had arrived in Bruges
in 1468 for her marriage, had had but a short wedded
life, her husband having been killed in battle in 1477.
She had no children and her step-daughter was nearly
of her own age. We may imagine her contrasting her
lonely lot with that of her brother's wife, the English
Queen. For though little Prince George had died
before he was a year old, King Edward had now nine
children (counting the baby Bridget), two boys and
seven girls. The Lady Mary, the second daughter,
aged about thirteen, was very delicate, and two years
later fell ill and died. The third daughter, Margaret,
was the namesake of the Duchess ; the next one, Anne,
was called after another sister of the King.
We may imagine that, in accordance with royal
custom in all ages, the Duchess Margaret not only
received handsome entertainment, but also bestowed
noble gifts upon her relatives and the distinguished
members of the court. Enormous bales and heavy
chests, embossed coffers and bulging sacks were
stowed away, we may be sure, in the dark, cramped
holds of the little Flemish vessels, and moved the
curiosity of the onlookers at the disembarking.
Presently they would be unpacked and a variety of
beautiful things distributed ; many of them were
for personal decoration in that age of fondness for
show. There would almost certainly be some ' picture-
blocks ' for the inmates of the royal nursery, for the
Low Countries were the home of the mediaeval wood-
cut. Some packs of playing-cards would delight the
elders. The ' court ' cards were often most elaborately
and beautifully painted, some bearing portraits of great
102
The Royal House of York
men and women of recent times. In many repre-
sentations of the time one card bore the portrait of
the wife of the French king, and one that of Joan of
Arc. The knaves, too, were much more like knaben
(boys) than our modern ones gallant lads in pretty
dress instead of the curious conventional figures we
know. The suits were not at that time rigorously
fixed as hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades ; one
suit, for instance, was two bells.
Then it is possible that for the young princesses,
her nieces, the Duchess Margaret had brought silken
hose, gaily-painted shoes, or soft ' couvre-chefs ' for
the head. For the Queen, or indeed for King Edward
himself, there could be hardly any gift more pleasing
than some flasks of cordial, vials of unguents, or pots
of delicate medicaments. The King himself was a
great patron of apothecaries ; and every mistress of a
household kept a medicine-store as faithfully as her
linen-chest. Specifics against the prevailing epidemic
of the plague were quite usual. Perfumes were highly
esteemed, and must occasionally have been sorely
needed both in homes and streets. Some years
earlier King Edward had sent to his brother-in-law,
the Duke of Burgundy, a finger-ring with a diamond
inset, and a similar ornament may have been among
his sister's gifts on this occasion. Probably, too, she
had brought for some esteemed host or representative
one or more examples of the ' printed ' books of Bruges
or Cologne or Mentz for the Duchess was ever a
book-lover. And, finally, there would be casks and
flagons of the sweet red wines, and white, for which
her country was already famous.
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William Caxton
However much impressed the Duchess Margaret
might have been with her brother's kingdom, Court,
and stately surroundings, she must have been struck
with the change in himself. The nine years that
had passed since their meeting during his exile had
left their mark on the great frame and resolute mind
of the King. His ruthless punishment of his foes,
open or suspected, had terrorized his nobles into
obedience ; his impetuous and reckless conduct of
affairs had won the admiration of the bulk of his
subjects of lesser rank, and, in general, he was popular.
But his ambitions were continually being frustrated,
and the miseries of remorse made themselves felt
as the years passed. His self-indulgent habits im-
paired his health ; his impaired health affected his
spirits and destroyed his energy. Indeed he seemed
hardly the same man as the exiled Edward of 1471
who, with a handful of supporters, made a dash for
his own country and triumphantly seized his realm.
He was perpetually harassed with the thought of
the succession to the throne. Only a few months
before the arrival of the Duchess Margaret he had
received envoys from the French king laden with
rich gifts, which appealed to his love of wealth and
display. But no definite word was spoken as to
when the ' Dauphiness ' prospective was to become
the Dauphiness in fact, and he began to be irritably
conscious that he was being trifled with by France.
Affairs with regard to Scotland were also unsettled.
The Scottish king, James III, had suggested that
his brother the Duke of Albany should marry the
widow r ed Duchess Margaret, but King Edward had
104
The Royal House of York
hesitated to sanction this match for fear of offending
Louis XL King James was as ambitious and as ready
to drive a bargain as Edward himself, and he inter-
fered in the matters in dispute between Louis XI and
Maximilian, the husband of Mary of Burgundy. High-
handed as usual, the English King had seized the Duke
of Albany and imprisoned him, but he had escaped a
few months before this time and had taken refuge at
the court of Louis. This was another occasion for
anxiety as, should the French king espouse his cause
and support the Scottish king, an invasion of England
would probably ensue.
The King's plan for his beloved heir Edward,
Prince of Wales, was that he should marry the daughter
of the Duke of Brittany, evidently with the idea of
securing certain dominions across the Channel. A
still more ambitious alliance was hoped for at the time
of the Duchess Margaret's visit the marriage of the
little Lady Catherine, aged three, to Prince John of
Spain, the third son of Ferdinand and Isabella. In all
these lofty designs for his children Edward had the
ready sympathy, and indeed the eager suggestions,
of his Queen. Partly to gratify her and partly to
surround himself with a new nobility, who might be
expected to be loyal to the sovereign who had honoured
them, the King had arranged, or sanctioned, the
marriage of the Queen's six sisters to noblemen,
whom he advanced to high positions.
The government of England during Edward IV's
reign was practically a military control. Parliament
was summoned but once between 1474 and 1483, and
that was only to procure the condemnation of the
105
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Duke of Clarence. The Duke of Gloucester was the
King's right-hand man ; officially he was ' Great Cham-
berlain and Lord High Admiral/ where ' Admiral '
is not an exclusively naval title. Henry Bourchier, Earl
of Essex, was Treasurer, and the Archbishop of York
was Chancellor. Early in the reign it had been pro-
posed, as one way of maintaining peace with Scotland,
that the Duke of Clarence should marry Margaret,
the sister of the Scottish king, James III. This fell
through, and some years later (1474) the infant son
of James was betrothed to King Edward's fourth
daughter, Cecily, aged five. But the ceremony,
though faithfully carried out, was not enough to
secure friendly relations between the two countries,
chiefly on account of the restless ambition of Alexander,
Duke of Albany, the King's brother. The characters
and relations of these two men might almost have
suggested to Shakespeare those of Prospero and
the usurping Duke of Milan in The Tempest. For
James III was overmuch given to the study of secret
and magical arts, and Alexander, backed by a dis-
contented party in the State, scornfully interfered in
the affairs of government and made mischief with
the English king.
The great nobles, in spite of the law against main-
tenance, kept up stately retinues in their strong castles,
and in practice the countenance and protection of a
powerful baron were better worth seeking by lesser
people than the protection of the law. We read
that the number of retainers who were kept at their
lord's expense and wore their lord's ' livery ' and
badge, varied from sixteen for a knight to two hundred
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The Royal House of York
and fifty for a duke, through all the grades, baron,
viscount, earl, marquess, etc. Hence it came that
quarrels easily developed into fights, and that a body
of armed men could enable an unsuccessful pleader
in a lawsuit to hold his own against any legal decision.
An interesting collection of letters written to and
from the members of an East Anglian family shows
that the instinct for settling any dispute by appeals
to force was far stronger than that for finding a
peaceable solution. One letter relates how some
disappointed relatives, declining to abide by the
terms of the will of a deceased squire, invaded the
house they thought should have been theirs, and held
it against all comers. The writer l says : There be
men in Cotton-hall who be strangely disposed towards
you, for as I hear say, they make revel there, they
melt lead, and break down your bridge, and make
that no man go into the place, but on a ladder ; and
make them as strong as they can. As for Edward
Dale (apparently a neighbour) he does not abide at
home, they threaten him so because he will send them
no victuals. . . . And as for the tenants, they be
well disposed to you, except one or two, if that ye
will support them in haste, for they may not keep
their cattle off the ground longer, and they desire to
have your own presence.' 1
In a letter from Mistress Paston to her husband,
who was absent in the train of the Duke of Norfolk,
she says : " As for tidings we have none good in this
country. It was told me that Richard Southwell
hath entered in the manor of Hale, the which is the
1 The Paston Letters.
107
William Caxton
Lady Boys', and keepeth it with strength with such
another fellowship as hath been at Brayston, and
wasteth and despoileth all that there is ; and the
Lady Boys, as it is told me, is to London to complain
to the King and the Lords thereof. . . ." It is char-
acteristic of the violence of the times that the good
old English word ' fellowship ' had become degraded
so that it invariably refers to the band of armed
retainers employed by some powerful landowner.
On the occasion of the holding of the King's courts,
which the King sometimes attended in person, the
question of disputed ownership would be settled in
accordance with justice based upon the evidence.
But that by no means assured possession to the
suitor if the unsuccessful party was strong enough
to take it by force.
In these same letters we have various details show-
ing how important was the matter of liveried retainers
on any great occasion. Sir John Paston writes to
his brother : " Brother, is it that the King shall come
into Norfolk in haste and I wot not whether I may
come with him or not ; if I come I must make a livery
of twenty gowns, which I must pick out by your
advice ; and as for the cloth for such persons as be
in the county, if it might be had there at Norwich or
not, I wot not. . . . And whether ye will offer your-
self to wait upon my Lord of Norfolk or not, I would
ye did that were best to do. . . . He shall have
two hundred in a livery blue and tawny, and blue on
the left side, and both dark colours."
On another occasion the son, Sir John, writes to
his father : ' Please you to wit that I am at Lynn
108
The Royal Hoitse of York
and am informed by divers persons that the Master
of Carbrooke (a Master of Knights Templars) would
take rule in the Mary Talbot as for captain, and give
jackets of his livery to divers persons which he waged
(paid) by other men, in the said ship. Wherefore,
inasmuch as I have but few soldiers in mine livery
here, to strengthen me in that which is the King's
commandment, I keep with me your two men
Dawbenny and Calle, which I purpose shall sail with
me to Yarmouth, for I have purveyed harness for
them. . . ." Not infrequently the King had paid
visits to the county of Norfolk, usually accompanied
by his brother, the Duke of Gloucester. The Queen's
relatives held large estates in the county, that of
Lord Rivers comprising the district famous in our
own day as Sandringham. Toward the close, how-
ever, of Edward's reign he journeyed alone, Duke
Richard being fully occupied in the North as Warden
of the Marches.
109
CHAPTER IX: Troublous
Times
N the year 1483 there were great doings at
Westminster and elsewhere ; and, however
much Caxton may have been engrossed in his
work in the Almonry, the stir of the world outside
must have reached him. For in the early spring of
that year the King lay ill, and before his people had
realized his sickness he had passed away. The
once active soldier had become enfeebled by self-
indulgence and luxurious living, sad and morose
through disappointed ambitions, and, seized by fever
or ague, he had no strength or spirit wherewith to
resist it. His brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester,
was at York, ruling his ' province of the North/ and
the young Prince of Wales, aged thirteen, was still
at Ludlow Castle, in the charge of Lord Rivers.
Certain that he would not recover, King Edward
sent for the two bitter rivals, Lord Hastings and the
Marquis of Dorset, and implored them to be recon-
ciled and to keep the peace during the minority of
his young son Edward.
He then declared that the Prince and his younger
son Richard were heirs to his kingdom, and he com-
mitted them to the care of the Duke of Gloucester.
The lords present were so moved at the sight of his
sufferings and misery that they promised all he
asked and shook hands in token of amity, though
the feud of Hastings and the Marquis of Dorset was
too bitter to be thus healed. At the age of forty,
after a reign of twenty-two years, Edward IV passed
no
Troublous Times
away, leaving the English crown once again to a child
of tender years.
In his will the King had directed that he was to
be buried at Windsor, in the chapel of St George,
and that the building and decoration of that chapel
should be completed. He bequeathed money for
the foundation of a chantry and of a hospital or
almshouse for thirteen aged men ; he stated that
all his just debts were to be paid, and all claims
upon his bounty when alive were to be honoured
to the full out of his estate. To his second son
Richard, already created Duke of Norfolk and Duke
of York, he left great estates, and a noble fortune
to each of his daughters, of whom the Queen was to
be guardian.
Preparations were made for an imposing funeral.
For a week the body of the late King lay in state
in the Abbey, then, in the midst of a stately procession
of peers and men-at-arms, singing monks and clerks,
it was borne by slow stages to Windsor and buried
in the tomb he had had brought from Mentz some
months earlier. Meanwhile messengers had been sent
by Lord Hastings, at that time Great Chamberlain, to
the heir to the throne at Ludlow and to the Duke of
Gloucester at York. He delivered the King's mandate
that Richard of Gloucester was the responsible
guardian of the young King and of his realm, and
begged him to join his royal master at once and to
bring him to the capital. So slowly did news travel
in those days, and so unprepared was every one
concerned, that the new sovereign (to be known as
Edward V) left Ludlow Castle only on April 24th,
in
William Caxton
nearly a week after his father was buried. So great
a company came with him that they made but slow
progress and were five da}^s in reaching Northampton,
where he was to have been met by his uncle, Duke
Richard.
However, plots and counterplots were afoot, and
Earl Rivers and Lord Grey desired that the young
King should reach London and, if possible, be crowned,
before Gloucester could take up his duties as Protector.
They hurried on with the royal lad toward London but
were overtaken at Stratford, in Essex, by the angry
Gloucester. He and his supporters were resolved
that none of the Queen's family (the Woodvilles and
Greys) should have positions of authority near the
young King. Tidings of these doings reached the
widowed Queen in her palace at Sheen, and she fled
with her younger son Richard and her four daughters
into sanctuary at the Abbey of Westminster. The
Great Chamberlain had a hard and busy time for
some days as rumours flew about ; the citizens of
London impetuously took sides with one party or the
other, and expressed their views by tumultuous
gatherings in the streets. Earl Rivers was put under
honourable arrest, and the Lord Hastings summoned
the Mayor and Corporation to a conference in which
he assured them that the Lord Protector and the
Lords of the Council were fully alive to their responsi-
bilities, and that the way of safety for plain citizens
was to retire to their houses and to pursue their busi-
ness peacefully. Caxton commented rather severely
on the excited instability of the Londoners : ' No-
wher be these fairer or better bespoken children than
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Troublous Times
they in their youth, but at their full riping there is
no kernel, no good corn found, but chaffe for the
most part."
The disturbed state of things led to the decision to
escort the young King Edward to the Tower as his
residence during the days before the coronation could
take place. It was at once the most dignified and
the strongest of the royal residences in London, but
it must not be thought of at that date as primarily
a prison. Every baron's castle contained dungeons
and the royal fortresses were the same, but the Tower
was first of all the king's residence. On a day early
in May there went forth an imposing procession of
barons and men-at-arms, the mayor and the civic
officials, to meet the young King. At Hornsey they
met the royal cavalcade, and, turning back with it,
took part in a grand ceremonial at the Bishop of
London's palace, where the archbishops and bishops
offered their homage and the mayor and aldermen
took their oaths of fealty. Then they rode on toward
the Tower, through the crowds of thronging, curious
citizens. Richard, Duke of Gloucester, rode bare-
headed behind the young Edward, announcing from
time to time in a loud voice, " Behold your Prince and
Sovereign." The royal lad was of a quiet and timor-
ous disposition, and was probably overwhelmed with
the novelty of his new position and the clashing of the
nobles' wills and desires even in his very presence.
It may well have been that he was conscious of sad
foreboding as he entered the gateway of the gloomy
fortress. For the Queen's party, inspired by her
determined and restless ambition, was bent upon
H 113
William Caxton
having Gloucester's Protectorate cease at the King's
coronation ; and desired that she herself, with her
relatives, should become his advisers and guardians.
To thwart this the Protector demanded the guardian-
ship of the King's brother, Prince Richard, since he
was next heir to the throne ; and he, being supported
in his claim by the two archbishops, the Queen after
a stormy scene gave way.
The meeting between the two brothers took place
at the Bishop of London's palace, and there they
spent some days together while preparations for the
coronation were made. Harsh doings were afoot,
too, for Lord Hastings, chief leader of the Queen's
party, had been accused of treason and summarily
executed without even the formality of a trial.
Rumours of this and other disturbing news no doubt
reached the young princes as they practised their
parts and were instructed in their duties for the
great ceremony. The coronation was to take place
on June 24th and the meeting of Parliament on
the next day. For the opening the Lord Chan-
cellor (the Bishop of Lincoln) prepared an impressive
sermon upon the text, ' Listen, O Isles, unto me
and hearken, ye people, from afar : the Lord hath
called me." This, though it was never delivered,
has been preserved among our records, and strange
and quaint are some of the images and turns of speech.
"It be undoubted that all the habitation of man be
either in land or in water. Then if there be any sureness
or permanence in this world such as may be found out
of heaven it is rather in the Isles and lands environed
with water than in the See or in any great Rivers."
1x4
Troublous Times
Just before the Sunday of the coronation the Lord
Protector postponed the intended meeting of Parlia-
ment, and then followed it up with the announcement
that the coronation was to be deferred till November.
The rest of the grim story is told so effectively and
with such mastery by Shakespeare in his Tragedy
of King Richard the Third that most readers can think
of the Duke of Gloucester only as deformed without
and a monster of cruelty within. He was not, how-
ever, accepted as such in his own time ; the political
party supporting him appear to have believed that
through an earlier secret marriage of Edward IV
his children had no legal claim to the throne. This,
if justified, made Edward's brother Richard the next
heir. We read that, in order to sway the public mind,
on the very Sunday which was to have seen the
coronation a political sermon was preached at Paul's
Cross by the brother of the Lord Mayor. Taking as
his text a verse from the Book of Wisdom, " The
brood of the ungodly shall perish . . . and shall
not strike deep root," the preacher declared that there
were grave doubts as to the right of the young Prince
to be crowned King Edward V, and that the Protector
himself was in that case the rightful heir.
We may well imagine that Caxton was among
the crowd of listeners, which numbered " peers and
clerks and goodly gentlemen and a great concourse of
citizens," and we can picture his grave face among
those of the startled hearers. We read that they were
too much disturbed and surprised to receive the news
with the cries of welcome which had been expected.
However, the next day the Lord Mayor and city
"5
William Caxton
aldermen, the Duke of Buckingham and others, went
to Baynard's Castle where Richard was residing and
craved audience. They begged him to take not
merely the protection of the realm but the throne
itself.
It is a curious illustration of the slowness and un-
certainty of communication in Caxton's day, that the
Protector's mandate postponing the opening of Par-
liament failed to reach most of its members in time,
so that they were on the spot on June 26th, when
" all the lords spiritual and temporal of this realm '
accompanied him to Westminster. There they pre-
sented him with an address petitioning him to receive
the crown, and on July 4th he was proclaimed king.
Two days later the coronation took place, the cere-
mony being performed by the aged Cardinal-Arch-
bishop Bourchier, a fortnight after the date when he
was to have crowned the young Prince Edward. This
great ecclesiastic was one of the most striking figures
of the time. Himself of royal descent (for he was the
great-grandson of Edward III), it had been his lot to
hold the highest positions in Church and State. At the
age of twenty-nine he w r as made Bishop of Worcester ;
ten years later he was translated to the wealthy
and important See of Ely ; twelve years after this he
became Archbishop of Canterbury and soon after Lord
Chancellor. This was in 1454, when the Duke of
York was Protector, but when in the next year King
Henry recovered from his malady, and Queen Margaret
held power, the Great Seal was taken from him. At
the defeat of the Lancastrians the Archbishop crowned
Edward king, but he held aloof from political life
116
Troublous Times
for many years. He was nominated cardinal in 1467
and seldom took part in any but Church functions
afterward. He built himself a castle-palace and was
distinguished throughout Europe as the patron of
learning and the friend of scholars, keeping a splendid
hospitality and maintaining a stately household.
We are told that it was at his banquets that there
first appeared in England the small sweet grapes of
Corinth, familiar to us as 'currants.'
Twice in his life the Cardinal- Archbishop was said
to have ' prevented a revolution ' by his tact and calm
judgment. One occasion was \vhen the victorious
Duke of York entered the House of Lords after the
battle of Northampton and advanced toward the
steps of the throne as though about to make for
the seat. The Archbishop advanced with a courtly
obeisance, saying, Will not my Lord of York go
and pay his respects to the King ? ' The Duke was
taken aback and became so conscious that the feeling
of the assembly was not with him that he retired. The
second occasion contrasts strangely with this. In-
stead of administering a rebuff, Bourchier, by his
action, established Edward's position at a critical
time. In 1470 when the King's secret marriage with
Lady Elizabeth Grey offended many of the nobility,
it \vas very doubtful whether the citizens of London
would support him or not. The Archbishop made
great preparations for an impressive ceremony and,
surrounded by several bishops and the Cathedral
clergy, a\vaited the King on the steps of St Paul's
Cathedral and gave him his episcopal blessing.
Now once more he was to hold a prominent position
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William Caxton
in the great events of the time. The curious eyes
of the Londoners were again to be feasted with
pageants and processions and ceremonies. From
Baynard's Castle to Westminster Hall, from the
Hall to the Abbey, where the coronation took place,
from the Abbey to St Paul's and amid welcoming
shouts at last rode the new King. Everything that
could add to the impressiveness of the occasion was
done, but there is a grim suggestiveness in the fact
that pages and heralds were wearing the splendid
suits prepared for the coronation of the young Edward,
and scarcely could the symbols of the intended King
be hidden beneath the hastily-prepared cognizance
of Richard. The State records bear the entry, " Eight
thousand boars made and wrought upon fustian at
twenty shillings a thousand." Later tradition had
it that the young Prince Edward walked with his
brother in the great procession, but it is believed that
this was not so. There were present, however, all
the magnates of the land the Duke of Buckingham,
a resplendent figure ; the Duke of Norfolk, and the
Duke of Suffolk, many bishops, the Cardinal-Primate,
and, apparently, some of the members of the late
king's family. Another entry gives, ' For the Lady
Bridget, one of the daughters of King Edward IV,
being sick, two long pillows of fustian stuffed with
down."
The Duke of Norfolk was proclaimed High Con-
stable of England for the ceremony, and the haughty
Buckingham High Steward of England ; his office
it was to bear the King's train in the Hall and in the
Abbey. He himself in the procession through London
118
Troublous Times
was ' dressed in a suit of blue velvet embroidered
with gold in imitation of fire." His horse was capari-
soned with the same material, the rich trappings
falling to the ground and being supported by gold
tassels borne by footmen gorgeously attired. Before
the King rode the High Constable, bearing a Sword
unsheathed.
The Cardinal-Archbishop, in full pontifical vest-
ments, walked in the procession. Following him
and his chaplains came the Earl of Huntington bear-
ing the gilt spurs. Then came a gorgeous throng of
nobles with the royal insignia. One earl bore the
staff of St Edward, the emblem of justice, another
a pointless sword, the emblem of mercy ; a peer carried
the mace, the Duke of Suffolk the sceptre, the Duke
of Norfolk the royal crown, and his son, the Earl of
Surrey, bore the Sw r ord of State.
From Westminster Hall to the Abbey the King
walked beneath a silken canopy, borne by the peer-
wardens of the Cinque Ports, supported by a bishop
on either side. Immediately behind him came the
Queen, wearing a diamond coronet, and followed by
peers who bore a rod crowned with a dove, and
the consort's crown. The Queen's train-bearer was
Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond, whose
son Henry, then absent in France, was destined to
become the founder of another royal house. When
the coronation ceremony was over the privileged
few in the Abbey saw, for a few moments, King
Richard III wearing the crown and holding in either
hand the sceptre and the orb. Beside him stood his
Queen, crowned, and holding her dove-crowned rod.
119
William C ax ton
The great banquet in Westminster Hall rivalled
in magnificence the most splendid of Edward TV's
functions. The new King was in his element as the
centre of the display. Seated at a raised table,
the Queen on his left and the Cardinal-Archbishop
on his right, he was served by nobles from vessels
of gold, his consort from vessels of gilt, and the
Cardinal from silver. At other tables sat all the
great barons who supported his claim, except those
who, in their official positions, served at the banquet.
It was the coveted prerogative of the Lord Mayor
of London to serve the royal pair with a golden goblet
of sweet wine and a vial of water, and afterward
to retain the vessels as his own. Midway through
the banquet the King's champion rode into the Hall,
fully armoured, and flung down his gauntlet, challeng-
ing to fight any man who disputed Richard's title.
As the metal glove rang on the floor the Hall resounded
with cries of ' God save King Richard ! King
Richard ! King Richard ! "
But the central figure of that stately scene, how-
ever magnificently vested and served without, was
bitten with sore misgivings within. He had good
reason to know the lowly knees, bent heads, and lusty
shouts might accompany disloyal or discontented
spirits, and we read that he was especially doubtful
of Lord Stanley's allegiance. " When the feast
was finished the King sent home all the Lords into
their counties that would depart, except the Lord
Stanley.' 1 He had sought to clear from his path
all the powerful adversaries of his claim, and during
the very days of his triumphal progress and corona-
120
o
5
M-l
O _
c IS
2
eu
a
o
a
o
u,
o
u
Troublous Times
tion Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey were put
to death in far Pontefract Castle (the ' Pomfret ' of
King Richard II).
In the succeeding days the King set about
such steps of precaution as might be taken. He
sent special messengers to the nobles in charge of
the garrisons at Guisnes and Calais, releasing his
subjects in those towns from their allegiance to
King Edward V and demanding its transfer to
himself, ' that good laws, reason, and the Concorde
and assent of the lordes and commons of the royaume
have ordained to reign upon the people, our said
soverayne lord King Richard the Iljde." He issued
a proclamation enjoining peace upon his people and
charging the judges and magistrates to administer
justice. He visited the court of King's Bench and
sat in judgment because he considered " it was the
chiefest duty of the King to administer the laws."
He made his young son, Edward, Lieutenant of
Ireland, with the Earl of Kildare as Deputy, and
promised alwaj-s to guard ' the weal of Ireland.'
He dismissed his North-country troops who had
followed him to London, and set out upon a royal
progress through his realm. Apparently the begin-
ning of the journey was by water. Leaving London,
the royal barges went on to Greenwich, Sheen Park
being one of the royal residences, then to Reading,
and on to Oxford. There the King and Queen were
the honoured guests of Magdalen College, and many
academic festivities took place. His next stay was
at Woodstock, the old forest-palace of the Angevin
sovereigns, which had been restored in the midst
121
William Caxton
of a ' chase ' by Edward IV. These lands Richard
ordered to be thrown open, thus winning the delighted
gratitude of the people.
At Gloucester, the city of his title, at Tewkesbury,
at Worcester, and at Warwick similar splendid scenes
took place. As the last-named castle was the home
of his wife in her girlhood, the celebrations there were
especially magnificent ; there he received greetings
from the sovereigns of Spain, France, and Burgundy
by their ambassadors. At York itself, the centre
of his old northern province, very notable prepara-
tions were made to receive worthily him ' who had
been their governor and was now their King.' 1 The
streets were decorated, the houses hung with arras
and tapestry work, and a procession met the royal
visitors on their way to the cathedral, with the mayor
and the civic dignitaries clad in ' red gowns/ the
nobles and gentlemen in blue velvet. Everywhere
shone emblazoned on waving banners the ' Boar '
cognizance, and all retainers had new suits of fustian
and leather to do honour to the occasion.
Gifts were offered to the sovereign and his consort
in caskets of gold ; it is said that as much as 5000
was thus presented. The King had declined similar
' benevolences ' from the burgesses of London and
Gloucester, protesting that he ' desired their hearts,
not their purses," but he appears to have accepted
the bounty of the northern capital. All this must
have much impressed the Spanish envoy, who had
accompanied the royal procession from Warwick.
At York, too, the King met his son, Prince Edward,
who had been sent with a retinue of knights from
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Troublous Times
Middleham Castle, where he was being educated in
the household of its noble owner. There was a grand
ceremony of knighting the young Prince, and he
was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester
on the same day. He was but ten years old, three
years younger than his hapless cousin Ed\vard, then
imprisoned in the Tower. Still another Edward
was there, and was knighted on the occasion this
was the eldest son of the Duke of Clarence. Several
of the young sons of the nobles present were also
knighted.
The courtly ceremonies were barely over when
King Richard had occasion to turn his mind to
sterner matters. Although it seemed that the
strongest party of nobles \vas on his side and desired
him to hold the throne, there were plenty of dis-
affected people and malcontents. Among these
were some who had openly espoused Richard's cause,
and chief of such was the powerful Duke of Bucking-
ham. To him came, openly or secretly, all who
desired to upset the newly-established order of
things. The ex-Queen Elizabeth, from her sanctuary
in the Abbey precincts of Westminster, had many
sympathizers, and was prepared to plot with any
party that would seek to remove Richard.
A certain Welsh physician, acting as go-between
for the Countess of Richmond and the royal widow,
arranged a marriage between the Princess Elizabeth
or her sister Cicely, and the young Henry, Duke of
Richmond, then in honourable exile at the court
of Brittany. When rumours of wicked deeds in the
Tower were bandied about, there were insurrections
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William C ax ton
in various parts of the country, and the Duke of
Buckingham put himself at the head of the most
powerful body of rebels. At the same time Henry
of Richmond's hosts, the Duke and Duchess of
Brittany, gave him substantial help in the form of
a small fleet of ships, and with these he set sail for
England.
There were many people he knew who would be
prepared to recognize and support his claim to the
English throne if he. showed himself able to make a
good attack, but without this prudence would dic-
tate a waiting policy. There could be no feeling of
passionate loyalty anywhere, such as at some periods
in history has brought about changes of rulers.
Edward IV had not been able to evoke it, nor could
his unknown young heir ; still less could his un-
scrupulous brother, now on the throne. Certainly
such a sentiment could not be strongly felt toward
the Earl of Richmond, even though he could claim
descent from King Edward III.
When, as he was turning southward, news of the
insurrections and of Buckingham's part in fomenting
them reached King Richard, he took such energetic
steps and found such effective support that the
risings were crushed and their leader seized and
imprisoned. If not ' the stars in their courses/ at
least the elements were against the insurgents, for
a terrific storm of rain and hail and tempestuous
gales made marching and fighting impossible.
Impossible, too, it was in the face of prudence for
the remnants of the little fleet from Brittany to land
Henry of Richmond on the shores he wished to claim.
124
Troublous Times
Two of the seven vessels reached the safe expanse
of Poole harbour (' one of the finest natural harbours
in the world '), and the shallow draught of the fifteenth-
century vessels found no inconvenience in the sand-
banks at its entrance. But the test-question,
" Friends and helpers, or not ? ' brought no eager
response, and as the tempest lulled Henry sailed
away to return, however, to some purpose later.
The King's vengeance on Buckingham's treachery
was sharp and complete. He was beheaded on
Sunday, the 2nd November, somewhat less than a
month after his open declaration of rebellion, in
front of Salisbury Cathedral. Although this prompt
action effectually checked the rising, it led to the
King's undoing. Popular sentiment began to turn
against a sovereign who showed himself ruthless
in anger and vengeance. The storm which had aided
his purpose began to be interpreted as a visitation
of God for the murder of the young princes, and the
disastrous overflow of the Severn was known as
' Buckingham's \vater ' ; thus linking the fallen noble
with the fallen princes. An eclipse occurring at
about the same time moved the people to an anxious
inquiry as to whether the deeds of King or nation
provoked the wrath of God. But for the moment
men were not united enough to take action against
a sovereign so ready in resource, so unflinching in
action, and so resolute in punishment, and by the
beginning of December King Richard entered London
in peace ; all leaders of revolt were executed or
outlawed and their partisans were awed into silence.
Confiscation of property of course accompanied
125
William Caxton
death or exile, so that he could win new adherents
by grants and gifts.
Yet, perplexingly enough, cruel and relentless as
Richard could be, in some instances he showed him-
self indulgent. One such example was in his treat-
ment of Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond.
She was now married to her third husband, Lord
Stanley, and in him Richard placed such confidence
that, while formally confiscating the titles and
possessions of the Countess, he named her husband
as their guardian. A writer of the time remarks :
" Had not his mercye exceeded his crueltye his safety
had been more assured, and his name (peradventure)
not soe much subject to obloquy."
It is impossible to say to what extent these turbulent
episodes interfered with the ordinary life of the
people, especially with that of those who, like Caxton,
lived in the shelter of a power and authority not
greatly affected by isolated disturbances of the time.
In the next chapter we shall see something of his
connexion with the new monarch and his court.
126
CHAPTER X: The 'Unpopular
King '
THE year 1484 was a busy one for King
Richard. The courtly and civic ceremonies
and the loyal observances which had at-
tended his assumption of the crown were over ; over,
too, was the pronouncing of sentences of death or
banishment with which he visited antagonists who
had thwarted him. It was the season for work, and
in this the King showed himself indefatigable. His
first and only Parliament was summoned for January
23rd ; to it came between thirty and forty peers and
about a hundred members of the House of Commons.
The clergy assembled apart, in Convocation, and we
read that in their first meeting they voted a liberal
subsidy to the King. The sermon preached by the
Chancellor at the opening of Parliament was upon
the text, We have many members in one body,"
and stress was laid upon the duty of governments
to seek the welfare and happiness of the people.
The Commons, no doubt under pressure, elected
as their Speaker, William Catesby, who was a retainer
of the King's household when he was Duke of Glou-
cester. Those were the days when the Commons had
as yet attempted no legislation, but humbly, by peti-
tions to the King, asked for redress of grievances.
Their first work in this session was the consideration
of the Bill introduced by the Peers, stating the claims
of Richard to the throne and to the title of king.
They gave it their approval and followed it up with
a grant of tunnage and poundage (i.e. the import
127
William Caxton
duties) and the tax on wool, for life. The reason for
this indiscreetly generous provision was the King's
own announcement that ' benevolences ' and forced
loans were illegal, and that he could never have re-
course to them.
Most of the petitions submitted by the House of
Commons to the King concerned trade and commerce,
the removal of restrictions and the promoting of free
intercourse between merchants. One clause in the
promise granted was to the effect that " no statutes
shall be interpreted as being a hindrance to any arti-
ficer, or merchant stranger, of what nation or country
he be, bringing into this realm, or selling by retail
or otherwise any manner of books, written or em-
printed." We may imagine the interest with which
the quiet worker and lover of literature in the Almonry
of Westminster heard of this and saw the widening
range of his industry.
The last item of parliamentary business was the
taking of the oath to secure the succession of the young
Prince Edward, son of Richard, and, within a month
after its assembling, Parliament was dismissed. The
King, meanwhile, was attending carefully to contin-
ental affairs. He made a treaty with the Duke of
Brittany, who thereupon bade farewell to his refugee,
Henry Richmond ; he recognized the papal authority
in ecclesiastical matters and dispatched two bishops
to convey his ' homage and filial duty ' to the Pontiff
at Rome ; he sent an embassy to the court of
Burgundy, whose Dowager-Duchess Margaret in her
widowhood had a royal court of her own and seemed
to hold a kind of sovereignty over Flanders.
128
The ' Unpopular King '
France had offered shelter to Henry Richmond^
hence Richard was warily watching France. Thither
had fled, too, more than one member of the noble
houses whom he was minded to destroy. But apart
from the wreaking of his vengeance upon foes, in which
he followed old familiar custom and precedent, the
King appeared to have set himself to govern well.
The great anxiety and distraction was ever the fear
of invasion by Henry Richmond, aided as he might
* be by some continental sovereign, and welcomed
by disappointed subjects at home. In view of this
Richard set himself to increase the navy, and, by
granting privileges to merchants, to obtain command
of further ships in case of need.
But misfortune dogged him. In the spring the
young Prince of Wales died, leaving the King with
no ' heirs of his body ' to succeed him. True, there
were nephews ; there were the young son of his
brother, the late Duke of Clarence, and the young son
of his sister who had married the Duke of Suffolk.
He named the latter, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln,
as heir-presumptive. In spite of Richard's care and
his designs to win popularity by giving up several of
the royal forests which his predecessor had enclosed,
men's minds were turning more and more toward
a successor of maturer years, so that Richard could
not rely upon any strength of national feeling to
oppose the action of impatient partisans of the house
of Lancaster. He was conscious of evil portents, and
his past cruelties might well have made him afraid.
Perhaps, too, besides the promise of coming troubles
there reached his ears the popular sentiment which
i 129
William Caxton
declared that he was not himself ruling the kingdom
but that upstart favourites controlled him. The rude
doggerel has come down to us which declared that :
The Cat, the Rat, and Lovel the Dog,
Rule all England under the Hog.
The names gibbeted thus are Catesby, Earl Ratcliffe,
and Lord Lovel, with a punning reference to the hound
in the Lovel coat of arms, and to the King's cogniz-
ance of the boar, which was blazoned everywhere.
Soon after the death of Prince Edward the Queen
became ill, and in less than a year the King had lost
both his heir and his wife. In his desperate resolve
to maintain his hold on the throne he proposed to
marry the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of his brother,
the late King. But even the least scrupulous of his
advisers warned him against such a perilous step.
The rumour of the King's intention turned many of
his subjects against him, and confirmed others in
their fear that his love of power could make him
forget all claims of honour or of conscience.
While the gathering clouds were heralding the close
of a reign, the least known and honoured of any in
our history, many quiet workers were pursuing their
way and trusting only not to be mixed up in any of
the broils which threatened to rage about the throne.
The plots and intrigues, their authors and objects,
are either forgotten or covered with a cloak of dis-
credit ; some few books, however, sent out from the
Red Pale at Westminster during those gloomy months
are among our greatest national treasures.
In an early chapter we pictured the visit of King
130
Richard III
G. Demain Hammond
130
The 'Unpopular King'
Edward IV and his brothers to the Almonry ; and
with them the silent meditative youth, Richard of
Gloucester. We may imagine as companion picture
a later visit with that same Richard as the central
figure. For literature was one of the interests of the
King when he permitted himself to shake off the
cares of State ; and the new method of producing
books was under his direct patronage. In the pre-
ceding year he had on more than one occasion taken
to Westminster the pale, sickly boy \vhose death
had now disappointed his hopes. The Queen, too,
had accompanied him, and had been presented by
Caxton with a copy of his French and English phrase-
book, first printed three years earlier in the new clear
type with which he was gradually replacing the
crooked characters of first books. This phrase-book
was a kind of short compendium of general knowledge
in French and English set in parallel columns, and it
was evidently designed to be committed to memory
in both languages. Some instructive comparisons
of fifteenth century and modern spelling are suggested
as w r e study a reproduction of Caxton's booklet.
FRENSSHE
La Grace de sainct esperit
Veut enluminer les cures
De ceulx qui le aprendront
Et nous doiust perseuerance
En bonnes operaciones
Et apres ceste vie transitorie
La pardurable joye & glorie.
ENGLISSH
The grace of the holy ghoost
Wylle enlighten the hertes
Of them that shall lerne it
And us gyve perseuerance
In good werkes,
And after this lyf transitorie
The euerlastyng joy and glorie.
Thus, after the devout fashion of mediaeval times, the
little book reads. No punctuation aids the reading,
William Caxton
but it is one of the first books in which the printer
is careful to begin the lines evenly. The arrival in
England of an enterprising Lithuanian exile, John
Lettou, who established a printing-press in London
in 1480, provided with the clearer Italian type and
fitted so that the appearance of the page was neater
than those of the Mentz printers, made Caxton look
to his laurels. Hence, on the King's visit in 1484, the
raftered chamber would be crowded up with precious
piles of paper thick and heavy ; and trays of metal
type would be continually increased and weeded out.
All the appliances for making the type would be there
too.
By this time, too, Caxton had two or three per-
manent helpers, one of whom was an enthusiast like
his master, and, like him, destined to become famous.
This was Wynken de Worde, a native of Belgium, the
form of whose name suggests the conflicting influences
of France and Germany on the Netherlands at that
time. He seems to have been a most efficient worker,
not only carrying out Caxton 's improvements but
also suggesting others. One such, attributed to de
Worde, was the introduction of a larger-sized page,
and another, the printing of two pages at once.
Although many of the books printed by Caxton
are undated we find that some at least of the im-
portant ones which appeared during the brief reign
of Richard III are clearly marked. One of these
was the Confessio Amantis of the poet Gower, friend
and servant of an earlier King Richard. The double-
columned text has at the end :
" Enprynted at Westmestre by me || Willyam
132
The ' Unpopular King '
Caxton and fynysshed the II || day of Septembre the
fyrst yere of the || regne of Kyng Richard the thyrd/
the || yere of our lord a thousand / CCCC / Ixxxiij."
The long slanting line which took the place of the
familiar comma was the only punctuation, and this
was not allowed to appear in the text. The absence
of a standard spelling and a clear and simple method
of writing dates is shown by a comparison of this
ending with that of another printed in the same year.
This was a treatise by the Chevalier de la Tour
Landry for the ' Enseignement ' of his daughters ;
probably this was an ingenious fiction covering the
production of a ' Book of Manners ' which seems
oddly to anticipate Lord Chesterfield's ' Letters ' to
his son. The closing page bears the inscription :
" Here fynysshed the booke / whiche the Knight of
the Toure ma || de to the enseygnement and tech-
yng of his doughters transla || ted oute of Frenssh
in to our maternall Englysshe tongue by || me
William Caxton / whiche book was ended & fynysshed
the || fyrst day of Juyn / the yere of oure lord
M CCCClxxxiij.
" And enprynted at Westmynstre the last day of
Janyuer the fyrst yere of the regne of kynge Rychard
the thyrd."
The parallel lines showing where in Caxton's print
the line of text ended, remind us how in all early
printed books, and while paper was scarce and dear,
there was no convention that monosyllabic words
should not be divided or that others should be broken
at their syllables. The indifferent use of i and y
suggests that thus the failure of one or other letter
133
William Caxton
in the supplies of type was got over, as was also the
occasional dropping of the final e. The date was
always something to struggle with in the centuries
before the complete introduction of the Arabic sym-
bols. Chaucer had mentioned the ' figures newe '
which he had seen in his travels, but they were,
in Caxton 's time and for many years to come,
mysterious, occult, and believed to belong to
witchcraft.
Caxton's preface to this book shows his high opinion
of it : 'I advise every gentleman or woman having
children, desiring them to be virtuously brought
forth, to get and have this book, to the end that they
may learn to govern them virtuously in this present
life.' 1 He also says that he undertook to translate
and print it at " the request of a noble lady/ 1
But the largest and most exacting of his produc-
tions during these years was his illustrated translation
from French and Latin manuscripts of the Golden
Legend. It consisted of the narratives of the lives
and miracles of the Saints, and to the mediaeval mind
it was, as Caxton termed it, " the mirror of the regime
and government of the body and of the soul." He
found the work so onerous that he was more than
once ' in a manner half desperate ' to give up the
task. But it was undertaken at the request of his
honoured patron, the Earl of Arundel, who encouraged
him to proceed by promising to take several copies
of the finished work. He is said also to have given
Caxton a small pension, or annuity, which, according
to old custom, was not in money but in kind, and
consisted of venison presented twice a year.
134
The * Unpopular King '
At the end of the book is printed :
Whiche werke || I have accomplisshed at the
commaun || dmente and requeste of the noble and ||
puyssaunt erle and my special good || lord Wyllyam
erle of arondel || and have fynysshed it at Westmestre
the twenty || day of Nouembre the yere of our lord ||
M CCCC Ixxxiij & the fyrst yere || of the reygne
of Kyng Rychard the || thyrd. By me Wyllyam
Caxton."
To do honour to his patron Caxton introduced the
Arundel coat of arms and motto, a device which
anticipated the long roll of punning or rebus cog-
nizances for which the English peerage is famous.
A running horse with the legend, " My Truste is,"
on his flank invites the reader to interpret it as " My
Truste is Fast." Caxton's own device, which he
placed in all his later books, has been supposed to
bear a hidden meaning ; the peculiar symbol between
his initials had the effect of making the whole appear
to be an unusually elaborate monogram, although
apparently it is really the overlapping Arabic figures
74-
As in the case of many of the greatest men in
history, very little is known of Caxton's private life.
The man is enshrined in his work. But careful search
has resulted in a few details from which a scanty
harvest of personal interests has been gathered.
During his residence abroad it seems that Caxton had
married a Flemish maiden bearing the favourite
name of Maud, and that, when he returned to
England, he brought with him a wife and a daughter.
He may have met his bride at Cologne while he was
135
William Caxton
laboriously mastering the new art, for it is unlikely
that he could have married when in the household
of the Duchess Margaret, and in the earlier years,
when he was head of the English house of the Wool-
men's Guild in Bruges, he was a member of a com-
munity living under rules which forbade anything but
a common life. But in the simple burgher households
of Cologne and Mentz something of the conditions
of his youthful apprenticeship in London would exist,
so that, when he returned to England, we may suppose
him to have brought with him his wife and a daughter.
In later years there were apparently three children,
two sons and a daughter, in the house behind the
Red Pale.
For some time a tradition existed that Caxton's
father spent his last years in his son's house and was
buried from there in the churchyard of St Margaret's,
Westminster. But the name was not an uncommon
one, in its form as used by the famous printer or
in the variant ' Causton/ and on the face of it there
is no great likelihood that the Kentish farmer would
in his old age leave the family homestead for life in
the house of a travelled and stranger-son engrossed
in a novel and busy profession. In the year 1484
Caxton interrupted his work on the Golden Legend,
to issue a Broadside, or single sheet, of Death-Bed
Prayers. Hence it is suggested that in that year his
father died, and that Caxton's mourning visit to
the Kentish home impelled him to turn his skill
to the production of something of solemn import
befitting the occasion. The Broadsides would appeal
not so much to the ordinary townsmen as to the
136
The i Unpopular King '
clergy, whose duty led them to the bed-sides of the
dying. While all that issued from Caxton's Press
is valuable and rare, this single sheet, printed on one
side only, exists in the form of one copy, which is
carefully treasured in a private library.
Though we are able to know but few details of
Caxton's domestic life, there remain some interesting
particulars of what may be termed his civic, or
municipal, activities. It was natural that an able
Englishman who had returned from a long sojourn
and responsible work abroad, and was engaged, under
patronage of the great, and even of the Court, in the
newest industry of the day, should take part in the
government and control of the affairs of his parish.
In the records of the church of St Margaret,
Westminster, Caxton is mentioned as among
those who were present at the audit of the
warden's accounts. The entry is evidently by a
clerk : ' In the presence of John Randolf, squyer,
Richard Umpay, gentleman, Thomas Burgeys, John
Kendall, notary, William Caxton . . . with other
paryshyns."
Similar records kept by the Mercers' Company
show that Caxton remained an honoured member
of the Guild of Woolmen, whose chief English staple
was at Westminster near the steel yard of the Hanse
merchants. Once a year at least this guild, like most
of the mediaeval trade societies, held a general audit
of its accounts. On the Feast of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was kept as a
general holiday, a festive gathering of the members
shared in the discussion of the society's prosperity,
137
William C ax ton
and the excellent dinner which followed it. The entries
one year cover two long pages, and include :
A tonne of wyne vjs iid
John Dray ton, chief cok for his reward xxvs
For the hire of xxiiij doseyn erthen
pottes for ale and wyne . . . iiijs
For iiij players for their labour . . xiis xd
For rushes . . . . . . ijs iiijd
From these curious old accounts we learn that
swans, herons, capons, ' chekens/ ' gese,' and ' conyes '
furnished the table, besides many kinds of fish, in-
cluding ' turbut,' oysters, and ' sea pranys.' The
habit of heavy feeding for which Englishmen were
noted was apparently a civic characteristic even in
the fifteenth century. A later entry in those same
pages shows that considerable roughness or clumsi-
ness distinguished the guests, the ' cok/ or his assist-
ants : "For erthen pottes broken at the same feast . . .
vijs viiijd."
With the passing away of the year 1484 (which we
must remember ended in March) the murmurs of the
coming storm grew so loud that not only King and
Court, nobles and political plotters were aware of it,
but also peaceful citizens and workers who would fain
have been absorbed in their own business.
138
CHAPTER XI: The Passing
of the Old Order
BEFORE entering upon a description of the
next struggle for the English crown a few
words must be said about one of the most
distinguished and important personalities of the time,
Margaret, Countess of Richmond, who, when we saw
her last, was assisting at the coronation of Richard
Ill's consort. This lady, one of the many Margarets
in our history and especially of the fifteenth century,
is perhaps the most graciously noted of all. She
was of royal lineage and a great heiress by birth.
When, at the age of four, she lost her father, John
Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, governor of Aquitaine
and Normandy in the reign of Henry VI, she became
the King's ward. Henry bestow r ed the office of
guardian upon William de la Pole, afterward Duke
of Suffolk, and he enjoyed the revenues of her estates
until his impeachment and death. One of the charges
against him was that he had arranged a secret marriage
between his young son and the Lady Margaret, and
indeed many great nobles were anxious to obtain
her hand for their sons.
When she was only eight years old King Henry had
her betrothed to his half-brother, Edmund Tudor ;
and in obedience to a vision which came to her after
asking for Divine guidance, she married him when
she was fourteen. During the ten years since her
father's death she had lived under the guardianship
of her mother (also a Margaret) a daughter of the great
house of Beauchamp. Under her care and training
139
William Caxton
the young heiress acquired a wonderful amount of
learning and developed a most devoted love and
reverence for knowledge and goodness. She was a
woman grown when Caxton's first books came out,
but we may imagine the interest and delight with
which she would see the fruits of the new invention.
On her marriage in 1455 the Lady Margaret lived
at Pembroke Castle, a possession of the Tudor family.
Her husband's father, Ow r en Tudor, is one of the
romantic characters of our history. For gallantry
at Agincourt he became an esquire of the chamber
to the soldier-King Henry V, and at his sovereign's
death was given the same post to the baby-prince.
The widowed Queen Katharine showed him further
honour and soon secretly married him. Their eldest
son it was who married Lady Margaret Beaufort.
A short time before the birth of their first child
the Earl died and the Countess Margaret was a widow
before she was sixteen years old ; she then again
became a royal ward. For some years she lived
quietly at Pembroke Castle, devoting herself to the
care and upbringing of her little son, well content to
be out of the turmoil of political strife. The boy,
who was afterward to become the astute, calculating
Henry VII, in no way resembled either his gentle,
generous mother or his eager, impetuous father,
though his great ability and strength of character
may have been inherited from the Countess without
her beauty of temperament.
In the early years of the Civil War the Countess
married Sir Henry Stafford, son of the Duke of Buck-
ingham. But this was insufficient protection against
140
The Passing of the Old Order
the disfavour of the new sovereign when the Yorkist
leader became King Edward IV. Partly on account
of her Lancastrian birth, but also in vengeance for
Jasper Tudor's (her brother-in-law) resolute support
of Henry VI, Edward IV attainted the little Henry
Tudor and seized his heritage, bestowing it upon his
own brother, the Duke of Clarence. The lad and his
mother were placed in the charge of Sir William
Herbert, a prominent supporter of the house of York,
and they appeared to have lived in Pembroke Castle
as before but now as prisoners of state.
Then in the whirligig of political fortune the success
of the Lancastrians, with the aid of the powerful Earl
of Warwick (aptly enough called the King-maker),
and the flight of Edward IV to the Burgundian Court,
restored to the Countess Margaret and her son their
forfeited inheritance and position. An interesting
event in the life of the young Henry of Richmond was
his visit to the Court in London with his uncle, Jasper
Tudor. There he was kindly welcomed by the failing
Henry VI, and some say that the dispirited monarch
foretold for the boy the throne of England. Within
a few months the daring return of Edward of York,
and his victorious encounters with Queen Margaret's
army, again threw the Tudor family into a position
of danger. Jasper carried his nephew, now aged
fourteen, with him in his flight to France, and the
lonely mother lived secluded in a house belonging
to her mother's family, the Beauchamps, in the Mid-
land shires. Here she sought, and undoubtedly found,
consolation in living^the life of a religious. Long^
hours were spent in prayer and meditation, material
141
William Caxton
comfort was shunned, severe penances embraced,
and the needs and sorrows of the sick and poor made
her one care. The fact that she was the wife of Sir
Henry Stafford seems hardly to have affected her life.
Her position and possessions gave her a dangerous
political importance which she had to bear in her own
person. Her marriage with Stafford united two great
Lancastrian houses, and perhaps this gave some
security to both, unless any ardent members engaged
in political plots. A popular description of the
wealth and position of the Stafford (Buckingham)
family was that there were as many liveries with
' Stafford Knots ' as there were with the ' ragged
staffs ' (Warwick's cognizance). Sir Henry in his will
left his whole fortune to his ' beloved wife/ except
for a few personal bequests of coursers, a ' grizzled
horse ' and ' harness ' to his own friends. To the
exiled Henry of Richmond he left his ' trapper and
four new horse harness of velvet.'
These, and other legacies of the time, remind us
of the extent to which wealth consisted in lavish
finery, rich wearing apparel, fine animals, massive
hangings and ' harness,' and to a lesser extent in
choice weapons, curiously embossed and ornamented.
The widowed Countess again connected herself in
marriage with a great noble, and this certainly, as her
previous one possibly, was in response to courtly and
political pressure. Her third husband was Lord Stanley,
chief adviser and personal friend of Edward IV. The
wedding took place when this monarch, worn out with
alternate war- work and self-indulgence, lay ill and de-
spondent, tormented by painful memories and oppressed
142
The Passing of the Old Order
by gloomy fears for the future. Lord Stanley was
the steward of the King's household, and his wife, of
necessity, became a leading figure in the empty,
noisy Court life of the time. She was, however, so
much the great lady, the cultivated, adaptable woman
of the world, that she accommodated herself to her
changed life, finding support, perhaps, in her growing
hopes for the future of her son. He, at the Court
of Brittany, was a centre for many far-sighted mal-
contents, and developed a resolute and patient attitude
which greatly helped to bring about his future triumph.
Two years after the Countess Margaret's marriage
King Edward IV died, and the Protector, Duke
Richard, suspecting Stanley's loyalty, imprisoned
him in the Tower. When, however, his path clear,
Gloucester had secured for himself the crown, he
restored the nobleman to his position at Court. Thus
it came about that the Countess Margaret was train-
bearer to the new Queen at her coronation. But her
mind must have been full of the future possibilities ;
in the eyes of many Richard was a mere usurper ;
Margaret's own descent from the princely John of
Gaunt gave her a better claim to the crown, and she
herself certainly believed that, with the accession of
a sovereign with a stronger title and a cleaner record,
happier times would ensue for the nation.
To accomplish this she resolved to waive her own
claim, and, transferring it to her beloved son, to accom-
plish his marriage with the Princess Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of the late King ; thus she hoped to merge
rivalries and dissensions in a national peace. The
old historian, Polydore Virgil, writes : ' She being
143
William Caxton
a wise woman, after the slaughter of King Edward's
children was known, began to hope well of her son's
fortune ; supposing that that deed would without
doubt prove for the benefit of the commonwealth,
if it might chance the blood of King Henry VI and
King Edward should be intermingled by affinity, and
so two pernicious factions, by conjoining of both
houses, be utterly taken away."
She soon won to her way of thinking her connexion
by marriage, Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and he
entered enthusiastically into the plan. The young
Princess, who was noted for her beauty and spirit,
was with the Queen-Dowager ' in Sanctuary ' at West-
minster, close to the abode of Caxton. In a suite of
stone chambers over the archway looking into the
Abbey enclosure, and at right angles to the long
buildings of the Almonry, the widow of Edward IV
waited and watched and hoped.
The eager, ill-natured attempt was destined to
failure, and, as we have seen, the Duke of Buckingham
was executed for treason. 1 Richard's vengeance fell
heavily, too, upon the Countess. Her estates were
confiscated, her titles and dignities taken from her,
her son was attainted of high treason, and she was
ordered to be confined in a castle belonging to her
husband, Lord Stanley, and prevented from com-
municating in any way with her son. So undaunted
was she, however, that in spite of watch and ward
she actively employed herself in preparing Richmond's
way, enlisting supporters, supplying stores of arms
and provisions in readiness for his coming, and in-
1 Chapter ix.
144
The Queen-Dowager in Sanctuary at Westminster
W. Hatherell
144
'
The Passing of the Old Order
spiring every one with confidence in the justice and
bounden success of the attempt.
Soon after the middle of May King Richard set
off to the North, leaving Lord Lovel in command of
a fleet of ships to watch the coast round Southampton.
Resting at Nottingham he issued letters of array to
the lord-lieutenants of counties charging them to
muster all trained men and to equip them well in
readiness thoroughly to defend him and his realm
from the traitorous attacks of ' one Henry Tydder,
son of Edmund Tydder, son of Owen Tydder, who of
his insatiable ambition and covetousness, pretended
title to the crown of England."
By the beginning of August Henry of Richmond had
landed on the coast of Wales and had sent letters and
issued a proclamation asserting his claim. Some of
his chief supporters were Welsh, and to them he wrote
in terms implying that there could be no question
as to the Tightness of his attempt to secure the
throne : ' purposing in all haste possible to descend
into our realm of England, not only for the adoption
of the crown, unto us as of right appertaining, but
also for the oppression of that odious tyrant, Richard
late Duke of Gloucester, usurper of our said right. . . .
We desire and pray you and upon your allegiance
strictly charge and command you that immediately
upon sight hereof, with all such power as ye may
make, defensibly arrayed for the war, ye address you
towards us, without any tarrying upon the way."
King Richard, on the borders of Sherwood Forest,
heard swift tidings of Richmond's landing and soon
of his steady marching from the west with a growing
K 145
William Caxton
army of supporters. He distrusted, with reason,
more than one of his nobles even the chief officials
of his household and among them Lord Stanley,
husband of the Countess Margaret. He issued pro-
clamations declaring certain of them traitors ; then
seizing the young Lord Strange, Stanley's son, who
was in attendance at court, he wrung from him a
confession that his father was in the confidence of
the invader. Stanley himself disappointed Henry by
his tardy response to the command to meet him,
fearing that Richard would take his son's life in
revenge.
By the middle of August Richmond had reached
Lichfield, and King Richard was setting out from
Nottingham with an immense array of armed men
whom he had succeeded in collecting. A curious
detail is preserved in the archives of the city of York,
always devotedly ready to serve their former ' Governor
of the North.' The mayor was ordered to send up
to the King " in all possible haste, eighty citizens,
each soldier being furnished with ten shillings in
advance for ten days' wages." On his way thither,
mounted on his great white horse, the King rested at
Leicester, and tradition says that he slept at the Blue
Boar Inn, and that in the hollow bottom of his bed-
stead, which was carried about with him, he kept a
large sum of money. This was never used for its
purpose of maintaining his army, but was found,
eighty years later, in its secret hiding-place.
One of the curious features of the time was the
mingling of pomp and show with the grim business of
war. We read that in setting out from Leicester
146
The Passing of the Old Order
with his troops King Richard, attired in magnificent
robes and wearing his crown upon his head, rode to
encounter the opposing army, which was said to be
but half as large as his own. The next day, after a
night passed in sight of the foe, he rose dispirited and
doubtful, but assembled his leaders and appointed
them their places. He sent an imperative message
to Lord Stanley to join him at once, on peril of the
instant execution of his son, Lord Strange. Stanley's
undaunted reply was that he had other sons and was
' not minded yet to come.'' A similar reply to
Richmond's urgent plea, sent at almost the same
moment, was that he would come ' in time conveni-
ent." As the battle progressed the prudent noble
joined his forces with Henry's and thus helped to
the successful issue which seemed to be never in doubt.
The unhappy Richard at the head of a large contingent
showed defiant valour, and, when urged to escape,
he protested, I will not budge a foot : I will die
King of England." In less than three hours the battle
of Bosworth Field was over ; the royal crown had fallen
unheeded into a clump of bushes, and its defeated
wearer lay mortally wounded on the trampled ground.
A few hours later the dead King's body was
carried ignominiously behind a mounted soldier toward
Leicester, where it was buried in the Grey Friars'
graveyard. The recovered crown was taken to the Earl
of Richmond and placed on his head by Lord Stanley,
his stepfather, amid the eager shouts of the soldiers,
' King Henry ! King Henry ! ' Thus began the
new monarchy.
In spite of the political disturbances, the pro-
147
William Caxton
scriptions and bloodshed of these years, many humble
people seem to have kept on with their work quietly,
only faintly concerned in the quarrels and pretensions
of princes and the feuds and fights of nobles. Life
in mediaeval times, and later, was a mingling of greatly
contrasted things. Harsh punishments and cruel
practices went on among a gay and kindly popula-
tion ; individual tyrannies existed side by side with
splendid instances of individual piety and devotion ;
sickness and disease, pestilence and war ravaged
the towns and the country-side, and as soon as they
were over the courageous and light-hearted inhabitants
resumed their daily toil and pursued their accustomed
way. Among such was our diligent student and
worker, Caxton. The waves of political conflict must
have beaten upon the outer walls of the great Abbey
of Westminster, which sheltered as many fallen fortunes
and rising endeavours as a small township. The march
of armed men, the rattle of weapons, and the cries
of the victorious and of the defeated alike must have
echoed there in this very year of 1485.
The Princess Elizabeth had been separated from
her mother by King Richard's orders and had
been borne in safe custody to a remote northern
castle ; the Queen-Dowager herself was placed with
her younger daughters in Westminster Palace for a
few months and afterward sent to the Abbey of
Bermondsey, where she remained until her death.
At the very time when King Richard was preparing
to leave London for the final struggle, Caxton finished
one of his most famous books and one of his most
arduous translations. The latter was The Life of
148
The Passing of the Old Order
St Winifred, which was, as he states, ' ' reduced into
Englysshe by me William Caxton," and her martyr-
dom is commemorated as the origin of the Holy Well
in Flintshire. This book had a ready sale, it seems,
since this saint was regarded most devoutly at that
time in England, and King Henry VII built a chapel
over the well which marked the source. This, in its
restored form, is still one of the attractions of the
little Flintshire town as well as a centre of devotion
for the faithful. 1 The other work was the ' noble
and joyous book entytled le morte Darthur . . .
reduced in to Englysshe by syr Thomas Malory
Knyght . . . and by me devyded in to xxj bookes
chapytred and emprynted and fynysshed in thabbey
Westmestre the last day of Juyl the yere of our Lord
MCCCClxxxv. Caxton me fieri fecit.' 1 This w r as
perhaps the most modern of the books hitherto
printed by Caxton, as Sir Thomas Malory wrote it
in 1470.
We may get some idea of Caxton's industry and
capacity for work from the colophon at the end of
another book produced during the same eventful year.
This was the ancient and beautiful romance of The
knight Paris and the fair Vienne, originally in Old
Spanish, but in the fifteenth century translated into
Provencal the true language of romance. After a
1 As a result of the improved modern system of water-supply to
the town, St Winifred's Spring has become so diverted from its
original course that the well threatens to run dry. Though efforts
are being made to preserve sufficient force of water to maintain it,
there is every probability that soon, as in the case of many of the
old wells of London, there will remain only the name of St Winifred's
as a memento of its historical fame.
149
William Caxton
period of neglect it was revived and translated into
French and other Romance tongues. Caxton turned
it into English and printed it, the only previously
printed version being one in Italian which appeared
three years earlier. His last page runs :
" Thus endeth thystorye of the noble and valyaunt
knyght parys and the fayre vyenne doughter of the
doulphyn of Vyennoys translated out of frensshe
into englysshe by Wyllam Caxton at Westmestre
fynysshed the last day of August the yere of our lord
MCCCClxxv and enprynted the xix day of decembre
the same yere and the fyrst yere of the regne of kyng
Harry the seventh. Esplicit p Caxton.' 1
These were the days before there were any books
written actually for children, but it is interesting
to find that a great French bishop, a contemporary
of Caxton, thought so highly of the romance, Paris
and Vienne that he translated it into Latin for the
use of his godchildren, the son and daughters of a
chancellor. So far as is known there is only one
copy in existence of Caxton's printed translation :
it is kept in the British Museum.
At the accession of Henry VII Caxton was getting
on in years. He was well past the prime of life, and,
though full of interest and energy, less able to under-
take alone the various duties belonging to the pro-
duction of books. And besides the great labour of
translation, the various materials needed in the pro-
cess of printing were almost all prepared, or even
made, by the workers. The parchment only was
manufactured elsewhere and was procured ready for
use. But the type, the frames, the ink, the engraving
150
The Passing of the Old Order
and other tools, were made on the spot, and when the
sheets were printed the decorations and binding were
still to be done. So precious was parchment that
any spare or spoilt sheets were used as lining for the
covers, or were cut into strips and inserted to strengthen
the folds. In this way, curiously enough, have been
preserved some fragments of Caxton's printing which
would otherwise have vanished.
From 1485 onward one of the workmen at the
Red Pale seems to have taken a more prominent
position and to have shared his master's confidence.
This was Wynkyn de Worde, who was destined in a
few years' time to stand in Caxton's place and carry
on his work. With the beginning of the new reign
there came a promise of peace and stability which
had for long been absent, and in the added security
of its good government the arts of peace, among which
was the printing of books, began to flourish. In
the next chapter we shall share with Caxton and other
industrious citizens of London and Westminster in
the rejoicings and anticipations which accompanied
the coronation of Henry Tudor.
15*
CHAPTER XII: The Tudor
Rose
WITHIN a week of his victory at Bosworth
Field, Henry, Earl of Richmond, was
entering London in great pomp as king.
It is said that the indignity with which King Richard's
body was treated was not by the orders of Henry,
and indeed that he gave commands (which were little
heeded) that it should be interred with due honour.
Beyond the gates of the city London's Lord Mayor
and aldermen met the approaching procession and
escorted the King through crowded streets of shouting
citizens to St Paul's Cathedral. There was held a
service of thanksgiving, and Henry's banners of war
were solemnly hung in the chapel of the Holy Ghost.
The Bishop and clergy ordained processions to various
churches during the week as the religious celebration
of the victory.
Though publicly claiming the throne of England
as rightful heir, Henry was conscious of the weakness
of the argument of lineal descent. The house of York,
descended from the third son of Edward III, had
one living male representative, while Henry's claim
was based upon his descent from John of Gaunt,
Edward Ill's fourth son. Following the unhappy
precedents of monarchs who seize their thrones,
Henry's first act was to imprison that representative,
Edward, the young Earl of Warwick, in the Tower.
He was the son of Edward IV's brother George,
Duke of Clarence, and of the Lady Isabel, daughter
of the King-maker ; and, at the time of the battle
152
The Tudor Rose
of Bosworth, he was in honourable captivity in a
Yorkshire castle, in company, it was said, with the
Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV.
When the lad, aged fifteen, was sent to the Tower,
the young Princess was given back to her mother's
charge in the convent at Bermondsey. It was fully
intended that Henry should unite the rival houses of
Lancaster and York by marriage with this lady, but
the King first hastened on the preparations for his
coronation and for the assembling of Parliament.
The crowning was fixed for the 3oth of October, and
joyful anticipations were formed of the triumphant
opening of the new reign. But a terrible misfortune
broke over the country. With the beginning of
September an unknown and malignant disease made
its appearance ; soon it struck down people of all ages
and all classes throughout England. Its ravages
were hardly felt in Ireland and Scotland, but it spared
no part of England, and was especially fatal in the
South. The sickness began in London early in October,
and in nearly every case it proved fatal. The Lord
Mayor who had welcomed Henry, and several of the
aldermen, were among the earliest victims. A new
mayor was appointed to carry on the great civic
preparations, and he, too, died from the disease.
Preparations for the coming coronation were thus
carried out under gloomy circumstances, but such
general relief was felt that there seems to have been
no mention of the pestilence as an ill omen. The King
set himself .without delay to the necessary business
of reigning, simply announcing his accession to the
great States of Europe, and summoning a Parliament
153
William Caxton
to assemble during the first week of November.
During this time he was in residence with the Bishop
of London at his palace at Fulham ; and a day or
two before his coronation he attended a banquet at
the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal
Bourchier. The journey from Fulham to Lambeth
was made by river, in the Bishop's state barge, but
when His Majesty left for the Tower he went in martial
procession, riding through the streets. At London
Bridge he was met by the Lord Mayor and aldermen,
who again welcomed him to the capital, and presented
him with a thousand marks. Undoubtedly Caxton
was present with the members of his guild. Arrived
at the Tower, the King bestowed honours on some
few of his followers ; his uncle, Jasper Tudor, was
created Duke of Bedford, and Lord Stanley, his step-
father, Earl of Derby ; both were made members of
his Council. A few knighthoods were given, but there
were no lavish rewards scattered among his sup-
porters. The Earl of Oxford was appointed Constable
of the Tower, ' with charge of the lions.'
On the morning of October 3oth we may be sure
that the citizens of London were early astir. Large
numbers were actually to take part in the ceremonies
of the day, either by walking in the civic procession
or by lining the streets ; every one else would desire
to be a spectator. The mayor and aldermen, in their
robes of office, their henchmen and heralds, officers
and footmen, the various city guilds, with their
banners and emblems all claimed the right to share
in the sovereign's stately journey to Westminster
for his crowning. Then there were the two bands of
154
The Tudor Rose
' Watches/ or city police as many as two hundred
and forty, we are told comprising pikemen in glitter-
ing corslets, billmen in leathern ' aperns/ and archers
in white fustian jackets, with the arms of London
emblazoned on back and front, bearing their bows
and sheaths of arrows. Footmen with long staves
cleared the way, and trumpeters on horseback mar-
shalled the procession, all combined to make a gay and
stirring scene in which Londoners delighted.
The King's procession and array were, however,
much more modest than those of his two predecessors,
Richard III and Edward IV. Perhaps this was partly
due to his frugal temperament, perhaps to his discreet
resolve to make no display until he had securely
established his position. Two features which were
novel have been handed down to us : one, that his
escort of knights were mounted ' in French fashion/
two on one horse, powerful Flemish geldings ; the
other, that a band of archers rode close around
his person, screening him from the general view. A
little later Henry established this troop as a per-
manent bodyguard, always in attendance on his
person, and in it we may see the origin of the famous
' Yeomen of the Guard/
Arrived at Westminster Palace the usual cere-
monies of robing took place in the great Hall ; the
King then, in the midst of a stately body of prelates
and clergy, moved on into the Abbey with his retinue.
Cardinal Bourchier placed the crown upon his head ;
he was duly anointed and acclaimed, and he returned
to his palace-fortress, the Tower, through the rejoicing
throngs of citizens. Feasts and holiday continued for
155
William Caxton
the rest of the week, and the ordinary appearance
of things was only just restored when Parliament
opened.
Enthroned in Westminster Hall, Henry heard the
speech of the Lord Chancellor, the eloquent Bishop of
Worcester, and then proceeded to the great business
in hand the obtaining of parliamentary sanction
of his position. Soon the statute \vas drawn up
proclaiming it ' enacted by the authority of this
present Parliament that the inheritance of the crowns
of the realms of England and of France be, rest,
remain, and abide in the most royal person of our now
sovereign lord King Harry the VII." The way in
which this was brought in gave the keynote of Henry's
later behaviour toward the nobles, for the Commons
introduced it, the Lords gave their assent, and then
the King declared ' Le Roy le voet en toutz
pointz."
Then there were the revoking of the attainders of
powerful Lancastrians and the solemn finding of the
' late Duke of Gloucester ' and his adherents as
traitors. Very wisely Henry followed this up with
a proclamation of pardon to all others who, having
resisted him, would now acknowledge him loyally.
He also gave seats in his Privy Council to two
bishops, one of whom was soon to become well known
and greatly dreaded ; these were Fox of Exeter and
Morton of Ely.
In January the King married the Princess Elizabeth,
a gentle and beautiful girl. Her mother, the Dowager-
Queen Elizabeth, Edward IV's widow, was in no way
allowed to participate in the ceremony, though by
156
The Tudor Rose
Act of Parliament she was recognized as Queen-
Dowager. Her life, like that of many women of
high birth in those turbulent times, had been a
chequered one. Raised to the throne as the consort
of Edward IV, she had held the exalted rank of Queen
with the consciousness that her royal husband's
family and many of the nobility considered her as
an inferior and an upstart. With a prudence which
served her better than a sensitive apprehension of
her position would have done, she used her power to
raise the fortunes of her family, and her tact to re-
strain, unsuspected, some of the rash or dishonourable
intentions of the King. At his death her guardian-
ship of her sons and of the realm was of short
duration. Her children wrested from her, the sons
murdered, and the daughter the unwitting object of
political aims and compromises, she had great need
to be a woman of extraordinary resolution or of
remarkable resignation to endure the time of per-
plexity and danger which followed her husband's
death.
Apparently her daughter Elizabeth was taken from
her side in the Bermondsey Convent early in January
1486 and given into the charge of the Countess of
Richmond, the King's mother. His Majesty, though
desirous to make this marriage for political reasons,
was in no hurry to go through the ceremony. Indeed,
not only his Parliament, but also his Privy Councillors
had to convey to him the strong desire of his people
to see the union accomplished, before he could be
brought to fix the day. At last January i8th was
appointed, and the Countess Margaret then gave up
157
William Caxton
her secluded life and took to her heart as a daughter
the young Elizabeth.
The people of London had again an opportunity
of seeing a pageant of glittering array. The royal
procession was one of great magnificence. The
Princess Elizabeth in a litter with canopy of white
cloth decked with silver, and attended by young
maidens in white and blue velvet, was borne along
from the Countess of Richmond's London residence
of Cold Harbour. The streets, and not the river, now
formed the route ; the King's procession on horse
and foot approached Westminster from the river-
fortress of Baynard's Castle. The Mayor and alder-
men, the guilds and companies, turned out in all their
civic glory, and the trained bands, composed of
apprentices and journeymen, formed little guards of
honour around banners and emblems. The King,
wearing a gown of purple velvet over a suit of white
cloth of gold, rode a great bay horse, caparisoned with
heavy needlework. The nobles of his retinue were
hardly less gorgeous ; tunics of embossed ' gold-
smiths' work,' with heavy blue or crimson sleeves,
hats and caps of coloured velvet decked with precious
stones ; and gay cloaks of varied colours, with tassels
of gold and silver, completed their array. Bells
jangled from the hangings and trappings of the horses,
and the King's archers marched swingingly in a hollow
square about the central figure. And everywhere
were blazoned the Tudor Rose and the Portcullis of
York.
Cardinal Bourchier, assisted by nearly all the English
bishops, performed the ceremony at the Abbey, and
158
The Tudor Rose
the newly-wedded bride entered upon her life as
Queen-Consort. The Countess Margaret was present
at all great functions, comporting herself to the young
Queen in a lowly and reverent manner. In the com-
parative seclusion of her home-life she was at once
the tender counsellor and the affectionate mother.
Herself a devoted lover of learning, she it was, no
doubt, who imparted some knowledge to Queen
Elizabeth, so that she emulated the Countess in found-
ing or endowing places of learning. The Almonry
at Westminster was, we may be sure, visited by the
young Queen, for the Countess Margaret, like her
namesake of Burgundy in earlier days, was a patron
of the diligent Caxton. Curiously enough there are
no books printed by Caxton still existing which bear
the date of 1486, the first year of King Henry VIFs
reign, his marriage, and the birth of his eldest son.
It may be that illness, domestic trouble, or the
municipal affairs in which he bore a part, absorbed
him more than formerly. Or again he may have
been busily engaged in preparing translations of some
of the works printed in the next year, while his helper,
Wynkyn de Worde, and his workmen produced
service-books and kalendars.
We pictured how some seven or eight years earlier
the debonair monarch Edward IV, his brothers, the
Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, and the young
Prince of Wales, paid a visit to the Red Pale. 1 Simi-
larly we may imagine the Countess Margaret and her
daughter-in-law, the young Queen, being received by
Caxton and shown some of the mysterious processes
1 Chapter VII.
159
William Caxton
and the wonderful results. Now there were more
men at work, changes had been made in the types
used, perhaps some improvement had taken place
in preparing the ink, and also there was a greater
display of illustrations. But the great chamber was
still the same crowded and dingy, and immensely
interesting with its little groups of workers, its stacks
of parchment, vessels of ink in different stages of
readiness, trays of types, leather and vellum for
binding, palettes of brilliant colours used for initials,
the high bench at w r hich the woodcuts were prepared,
and the great framework of the press in the middle,
shaking with the thuds that ' enprynted ' a sheet at
a time. The ladies now would see what the earlier
visitors could not the precious piles of printed
books, ready for binding as they w r ere wanted, and a
growing heap of spoilt sheets or rejected leaves from
which the binder took his edgings and foldings.
In the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey are
stored some curious relics of those and the succeeding
years. These relics are fragments of manuscripts
and of printed paper actually used by Caxton and de
Worde and the skeletons of rats which had carried
them away to their holes in the Triforium.
Before the end of the year the royal couple were
rejoicing in the birth of a young prince. He was
named Arthur in compliment to the King's Welsh
ancestry, and we may imagine that there would
be a demand for copies of Caxton's ' joyous book '
among the aristocrats of the court. The child was
born in Winchester Castle and christened in the
cathedral. There remain some interesting records
1 60
The Tudor Rose
of the stately ceremonial of the occasion, devised
with loving care by the Countess Margaret. All was
arranged beforehand so that no untoward hitch
might occur : "A duchess shall carry the infant to
the font, and if it be a prince an earl shall bear the
train of the mantle which shall be of rich cloth of
gold with a long train furred throughout with ermine ;
if it be a princess a countess shall bear the train."
The cradle of estate was to be covered with crimson
cloth of gold, and at the head were to be engraven
the King's arms. It was to have two counterpanes
of scarlet, furred with ermine and bordered with velvet,
cloth of gold, or tissue.
It is pleasant to note that the Queen-Dowager was
permitted to share in the joyful ceremony of the
christening. The duchess appointed was the infant's
aunt, the Princess Cecily, Elizabeth's sister, and the
elaborate train was borne by her brother, the Marquis
of Dorset. The Dowager-Queen awaited their coming
in the cathedral, and presented, as her christening-
gift, a rich cup of gold. The Earl of Derby (husband
of Countess Margaret) gave ' a rich salt of gold
covered,' and the Earl of Oxford, the King's most
potent help at Bosworth, presented ' a pair of gilt
basons.' In commemoration of the happy event the
Queen founded a Lady-Chapel in Winchester Cathedral.
This was in September 1486.
Rather more than a year later the young Queen
left her peaceful home at Sheen Palace, where the
royal couple seem mostly to have lived, to take part
in the imposing ceremony of her coronation. Hitherto
she has been Queen of courtesy ; but now the Council
L 161
William C ax ton
and advisers had at length induced the reserved and
self-contained King to bestow upon her the due
honour of crowning. When at last he had consented,
Henry's first care was to make it the occasion of un-
paralleled magnificence. In the dark November days
of 1487 London and Westminster were again gladdened
with a royal pageant. The Queen and the Countess
Margaret were first brought in the royal barge from
Greenwich to the Tower, and then followed a great
civic display. Again the mayor, sheriffs and alder-
men played their wonted part, " with diverse and many
worshipful commoners chosen out of every craft, with
their liveries in barges freshly furnished with banners
and streamers of silk, richly beaten with the arms
and badges of their crafts.' 1 Gay music, trumpets,
and clarions and other minstrelsies accompanied the
progress. It is reasonable to suppose that among
" the diverse and worshipful commoners ' was to be
seen Master William Caxton wearing a heavy furred
robe, and keenly observant of all the changing
scene.
The King awaited the ladies' arrival at the Tower
steps, and greeted his wife and his mother in a " manner
right joyous and comfortable to behold." The next
day the coronation took place. The city was decorated
in the most sumptuous way ; heavy tapestries and
arras of cloth of gold and velvet were hung from the
upper windows of the houses ; wreaths and branches
of trees made festoons across the road, and, in readi-
ness for the revelries at night, lanterns were slung from
every corner or were placed in numbers on wrought-
iron frames in curious designs. All along the way
162
The Tudor Rose
stood the City Companies in order of their greatness
and importance, the wealthiest being nearest to St
Paul's Cathedral, and at intervals were stationed
bands of " well-singing children, some arrayed like
angels and others like virgins, to sing sweet songs as
her grace passed by."
With these, and other pretty touches, was shown
the people's appreciation of the fact that it was the
young Queen's festival. She was borne in a great
open litter under a canopy carried by four Knights of
the Bath ; the King's mother, in a smaller litter,
followed immediately behind. Before them rode, on
grey palfreys, six baronesses wearing crimson velvet,
and the Duke of Bedford, Jasper Tudor. We read
that the Queen wore ' ' a kirtle of white cloth of gold
and mantle of the same, furred with ermine. Her
long fair hair streamed down her back, and on her
head she wore a coronet of gold, glittering with
precious stones." She spent that night in West-
minster Palace, and the next day she became the
central figure of a still more imposing procession
that passed from the great Hall to the Abbey.
Clad in a kirtle and mantle of purple velvet, furred
with bands of ermine, and wearing a circlet of gold
upon her head, she passed along the streets, pre-
ceded and surrounded by all the great nobles and
ecclesiastics of the realm. The Bishops of Winchester
and Ely supported her on either side ; the Princess
Cecily carried her train. The staff with the dove
was borne by the Earl of Arundel, the sceptre by the
Duke of Suffolk, and the crown on its velvet cushion
by the Duke of Bedford. A long train of knights
163
William Caxton
and barons, their heralds and pursuivants, and as
many bishops and abbots, robed and mitred, passed
in through the great west door and up to the altar.
The King with his mother and a goodly sight of
ladies stood on a stage from which they could con-
veniently behold the ceremony."
In the afternoon the newly-crowned Queen gave
a banquet in Westminster Hall, the King and the
Countess Margaret being spectators ' in a latticed
gallery.' With due ceremony the Queen's Majesty
was served by a peer on bended knee ; two of her ladies
sat at her feet ; the Countess of Oxford and the
Countess of Rivers, members of leading Lancastrian
and Yorkist houses respectively, knelt on either
hand and ' at times held a kerchief before her
grace.'
Only one further ceremony at all approaching the
magnificence of this is recorded as being shared by the
Queen the festival of the Knights of the Garter
held on St George's Day in the following year. We
read that the King rode in procession from Windsor
Castle to St George's Chapel, surrounded by his
' brother-knights,' attired in the gorgeous robes of
the Order. The Queen and the Countess of Richmond
were in a massive chariot drawn by six horses, coach
and horses being caparisoned in cloth of gold. Behind
them rode a score of ladies of high birth on white
palfreys, with saddles of cloth of gold, and white roses
emblazoned on all their trappings. Then came a
knight leading the Queen's horse, with saddle and
housings of cloth of gold, and silver bells jingling on
the heavy fringes.
164
The Tudor Rose
King Henry, unlike Edward IV, had no love for
pageantry and display, and he usually grudged the
cost of royal entertainments. Very occasionally,
however, he found it politic to indulge his subjects
with an imposing spectacle, but toward its expenses,
however, those participating were expected to con-
tribute. There is always connected with his name
the remembrance of his stern and systematic repres-
sion of the barons, their independence, their great
possessions, and their large bands of retainers. At
present he was only feeling his way, but soon he made
it quite clear that money-making pursuits, instead of
money-spending pursuits, had his patronage. Besides
his favourable treaties with other nations he was
careful to foster trade at home. He took the Guild
of St John Baptist, of the Woolmen and ' Merchant
Taylors/ under his special protection, even becoming
a member of that body. Since peace is the first
essential for prosperous industry, the King deter-
mined to put down the frequent quarrels between
the great nobles and their partisans by making
forfeit the lands of those who ' partook of routs
and unlawful assemblies.' In his second Parlia-
ment there were also passed laws against usury, a
practice which greatly hampered trade, and others
whereby peaceful foreign merchants might journey
about the country.
The King personally visited many of the districts
where he suspected disloyalty. Setting out from his
mother's manor of Torrington, in Devonshire, he went
across country to Suffolk and Norfolk, keeping his
Christmas feast at Norwich, and thence journeyed
William Caxton
to Cambridge and thence on to London. Perhaps
it was due to this that we find recorded the King's
command to ' make and repair ' the road from London
to Cambridge. The eastern approach to the capital
lay through the Essex marshes, and the fenlands of
Huntingdon and Cambridgeshire were entirely un-
drained as yet. His mother, the Countess Margaret,
a few years later built and endowed two colleges at
Cambridge, Christ's and St John's, and two Reader-
ships in Divinity at Oxford. Henry so far resembled
her as to support and to protect places of learning.
London began to assume a different appearance
with the greater security of person and possessions
under Henry's government. The King rebuilt the
river-fort, Baynard's Castle, so that it became more of
a palace and less of a fortress ; he pressed on
the slowly-moving work of building the chapel of
Henry VI in Westminster Abbey, intending to bring
the coffin of that monarch from St George's Chapel,
Windsor, where his predecessor, Richard III, had
placed it, to rest within the Abbey walls. This was
never done, and the chapel by degrees lost its
connexion with Henry Plantagenet ; before it was
finished it became known as the Chapel of Henry VII,
and as such remains the most distinguished monu-
ment to his memory. In the building of it two smaller
chapels, those of St Faith and of the Holy Trinity,
with which Caxton must have been familiar, were
demolished.
Another memorial of Henry Tudor's kingly taste
for building was the hospital, for one hundred poor
persons, on the ruins of the Savoy Palace. This,
166
The Tudor Rose
the residence of John of Gaunt, wrecked by the
populace in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, had lain
in ruins ever since. The chapel (which alone remains
to-day) was the chapel for the bedesmen and bedes-
women of the hospital.
167
CHAPTER XIII: T/ie New
Order
ALTHOUGH Henry of Richmond had become
king, not only by conquest, but also by parlia-
mentary sanction, which expressed the general
will of the nation, there were powerful individuals
and a restless minority who were ill-content. The
open disaffection was led in England by Lord Lovell
and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, whom
Richard III had named as his heir. But there were
also plots and intrigues elsewhere, the fact that Henry's
was ' an island-realm ' in no way preventing the contin-
ental rulers from interesting themselves in its fortunes.
It will be noticed that Henry still retained the title
of ' King of France/ as, indeed, did all his successors
until George III. But it was an empty show, as the
seaport of Calais, one of the staples of the wool trade,
was all that remained of the once extensive heritage
of the Angevin sovereigns.
Indeed, the kingdom of France had become so
consolidated that only Brittany, of all the old feudal
signiories, remained independent. There Henry
Richmond had sheltered until he could strike his blow,
and to its ruler he was indebted for help in gaining
the throne. The King of France, too, had been
friendly and had advanced money for the equipment
of his forces ; for this Henry had left as sureties the
Marquis of Dorset and a knight.
But in the once-powerful Burgundy, now becoming
absorbed in the Empire, there was a centre of intrigue
against the Tudor King. The widowed Duchess
168
The New Order
Margaret, Edward IV's sister, bitterly resented the
suppression of the house of York, and welcomed and
sheltered any conspirators against Henry. There
originated and was carried out the plan for training
an Oxford lad, named Lambert Simnel, to imperson-
ate the young Edward Plantagenet, son of the Duke
of Clarence, whom Henry kept in honourable custody
in the Tower. While the clumsy imposture w r as being
exposed and contemptuously dealt with, another of
similar import was being devised. A Flemish youth
of Tournay, of pleasing manners and adventurous
mind, who had travelled much in the service of Bur-
gundian nobles and merchants, was received by the
Duchess Margaret at her court and exalted to the
position of reputed heir to the English throne. It
was given out that he was Prince Richard, the younger
of the two sons of Edward IV, who were imprisoned
in the Tower by Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
When our story ends the lad was still learning his
part, in tutelage at Bruges, as a royal prince, with
industriously circulated reports of his attainments,
his purpose, and the growing number of his supporters
and adherents. Thus were fanned the hopes of many
disappointed persons in the political world who were
ready to adventure something to disturb the estab-
lished order of things. The Duchess resolutely
nursed her animosity against Henry VII, and his
marriage with her niece Elizabeth seemed only to
inflame her against the Queen and her mother for
thus leaguing themselves with the enemy who had
overthrown their house. Her devices helped to
make the wearer of the crown as uneasy as she could
169
William Caxton
desire for some years before the actual issuing of
Perkin's proclamation, though with the cold resolu-
tion which distinguished him Henry put a brave
face upon the matter.
It is always remembered of this first Tudor King
that his great achievement was the depression of
the powerful barons and the fostering of the merchant
class. Before Caxton's death in 1491 the astute
Morton, Bishop of Ely, had become Archbishop of
Canterbury by the King's wish. He, unlike his
illustrious predecessor, Thomas Becket, in no way
disappointed his royal master in his new position.
His presidency of the small judicial court, which the
King had formed out of his Council, permitted him to
exercise the peculiarly penetrating judgment which
distinguished him. Powerful and headstrong nobles,
confronted with the passionless administration of
the Star Chamber, found themselves paying enormous
fines in order to maintain their positions and prestige
in their own demesnes. The statutes against retainers,
' maintenance ' and ' liveries ' that is, against the
armed retinues which added to the glory of their
state and made each one almost a little king might
perhaps have been ignored by men whose wills were
apt to be a law to themselves. But the searching
inquiries of the King's secretaries and the famous
' Morton's fork ' were not to be evaded.
King Henry, gloomily regarding the imposing band
of tenants and serving-men assembled in an earl's
courtyard to do honour to his royal guest, waived
aside the proffered compliment and insisted : You
must speak with my Secretary, my lord Earl." The
170
The New Order
interview could but end in one way an offering or a
fine, call it what you will, from a noble to his king
as earnest of his humble loyalty. Where display was
absent and no penalty therefore could be incurred
for it, the Cardinal-Chancellor's other horn impaled
the victim : ' Since you eschew vain expenditure,
my lord, it must follow that you have where-
withal to support the King in his defence of the
realm."
In Lytton's fine romance, The Last of the Barons,
we have a stirring picture of the power and magnifi-
cence of the noble houses of Edward IV's day, the
head and crown of which was that of Warwick.
Nearly as powerful, and maintaining its position later,
was the great family of Clifford, which was descended
from William the Lion, King of Scotland in the
twelfth century, and allied with the royal Plantagenets
by marriage. Sometimes supporters and sometimes
opponents of the house of Warwick, the Cliffords have
left their mark upon the history of the times, the lands
they owned, and the literature which revives for us
the past. The Earl of the late fifteenth century was
prudent enough to avoid the exactions of Henry VII,
though his sovereign jealously regarded his posses-
sions. Hereford, on the borders of Wales, still boasts
the traditions of the ancient Cliffords ; Skipton, in
Yorkshire, was the centre of their northern territories ;
Brougham Castle, in Westmorland, came into the family
as dowry of an heiress, as did Appleby Castle in the
same county. The Countess Clifford of those days,
when she became a widow, was sheriff of the county.
Indeed, the barons of Westmorland were for long to
171
William Caxton
be almost independent of the sovereign, so far
removed was that debatable shire from any real
control of the King.
The manor of Threlkeld, beyond Penrith in the fast-
nesses of Blencathara and Skiddaw, was the scene of
the romantic disguise of the heir of the house as a
shepherd's son during the ascendancy of the Yorkists
in Edward TV's reign. A Clifford is mentioned by
Shakespeare, 1 another by Southey ; the unfortunate
heir, ' the Shepherd Earl,' is the subject of Words-
worth's Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle ; his
mother's misfortunes are mentioned in The Waggoner,
and his later retreat at Bardon Tower in The White
Doe of Rylstone. The name of their London mansion
by the Thames is still preserved in Clifford's Inn,
which, after the fourteenth century, was, like the
ancient foundation of the Knights Templars, rented
to the law-students.
In the Paston Letters are many revelations of the
lawless and violent dealings of the great landowners
in claiming or asserting their rights and settling their
disputes with their neighbours or tenants. Driving
off cattle, burning of barns, even the besieging of houses
and the forcible detention of opponents, supplemented
the slow processes of the law or were substituted for
them. The Duke of Norfolk on one occasion entered
Caistor Manor, owned by a member of the Paston
family, drove off a flock of sheep and a number of
oxen, and carried away a hundred pounds' worth of
furniture. For three years he compelled the manorial
tenants to pay their rents to himself ; and he re-
1 // King Henry VI, Act V, Sc. n.
172
The New Order
linquished his position only on being paid a sum of
five hundred marks. An almost similar instance
occurred at Hellesden, which was raided by the Duke
of Suffolk. The list of goods removed has been pre-
served, and includes " ij fedder beddes with ij bolsters,
iiij materas, iij cortayns of blewe lakeram, vi payre
of sheetes of ij webbes," evidently from the chambers
of the manor ; implements from the ' botere ' and
the ' brewhere/ such as " ij pantrye knyves " and " a
syff to syft malt." There were also removed ' j
mortar of marbell with a pestell ' from the kitchen,
and " gear taken out of church.' 1
It must be added that the smaller landowners
quarrelled and terrorized each other by displays of
force as readily as the barons, and that they rarely
waited for a legal decision in any dispute before taking
up arms. Hence there was real need for the stern
measures of Henry in establishing order and compelling
observance of the ' King's peace,' even in the terri-
tories of the most powerful noble.
The Paston family had been one of solid compet-
ence and integrity, and soon after Henry's accession
John Paston was appointed Sheriff of Norfolk and
Suffolk ; to him it fell to prevent the restless mal-
content, Lord Lovell, from finding safe hiding-places
in the " ports and creeks and other places upon the
coasts " of the Eastern counties. Also the Lambert
Simnel rising was expected first in that district, and
the King journeyed through Suffolk and Norfolk in
order to animate the loyalty of his subjects. John
Paston was made " an esquier of the body ' to the
King, and in the course of his official duties was
173
William Caxton
responsible, whenever the disturbed condition of the
country made it necessary, for raising and bringing
in person to the Lord High Admiral, " a company
defensively arrayed, horsed and harnessed to be
at the King's wages " and to serve as a troop of
fighting-men.
In spite, however, of a warlike tendency in the
manner of life of the fifteenth century, there were
many characteristics which show that it was not
entirely barbarous. A travelled Italian writer of the
time comments upon the good manners of English
gentlemen, and this was probably due to the training
of the feudal system, where the position of every one
was clearly defined. The princely households of
great barons and ecclesiastics were schools of manners
as well as colleges for the learning of clerkly and
knightly arts. The rough plenty of the table and the
crude extravagance of personal attire did not exhaust
the capacity for enjoyment of the fifteenth-century
gentleman or the lady his wife. Compared with the
embarrassing number of petty possessions of an in-
dividual of to-day the personal treasures may seem
few in number, but they stood for their owners' love
of beauty and intellectual interest. Some wills and
inventories amongst the Paston Letters may be taken
as typical. Margaret Paston, sister-in-law of the
Sheriff John already mentioned, bequeaths, among
a considerable amount of solid furniture and house-
hold goods, to her daughter Anne " my green hangyng
in my parlour at Mauteby, a standing cuppe with a
cover gilt with a flat knoppe, xij silver spoones, my
best corse girdill, blewe harneised with silver and
174
The New Order
gilt, my primer, my bedes of silver enamelled." To
Margery, her daughter-in-law, she leaves some silver
and " my masse book with all mine awter clothes,"
and to another daughter-in-law, her ' prymer clad
with grene velvet."
A special point of interest attaches to the " In-
ventory of Englysshe Boks of ... " probably the
John Paston already named. They are eighteen in
number and include four books on Heraldry, and one
on " Knyghthod and the Maner of makyng Knyghts,
Jousts and Tourneaments, paces holden by Soldiers
and Challenges ' . . ., a service-book, given him by
Percival Robsart ; two books of Cicero, de Senectitte
and de Amicitia ; a version of the Chronicle of
England, beginning at the ' Dethe of Arthur, Guy
Erl of Warwick, King Richard Cur de Lyon . . .
to Edwarde the iij " ; and two books of Chaucer.
All these in manuscript ; but there remains one,
" Item, a Boke in preente of the Pleye of the Chess."
This collection was quite a creditable library for
a country squire of the time, and we may imagine
that in this and in any similar household the few
books possessed were carefully treasured and rarely
permitted to be handled. In another inventory,
that of the possessions of Sir James Gloys, Priest of
St Clement's, Norwich, there occur the names of a
few books, none of which is printed : a ' boke of
Statutes," a " boke of xij chapetyres of Lyncoln,"
" a boke 'of Sofistry," ' a boke of Seynt Thomas de
Veritatibus, a red boke with Hugrecio and Papie,
iij bokes of Sofistry and maney other small bokes,"
in a coffer. There was also a copy of a book to be
175
William Caxton
closely connected with Caxton in the course of
another few years, the Vitce Patrum.
Returning to the Red Pale and a consideration of
Caxton's later work, we find that early in 1487 he
undertook the printing of The Book of Good Manners,
at the request of a fellow-member of the Mercers'
Guild. The book was translated from the work of
an Augustin friar of Paris, to whom was committed
part of the education of the young son of Charles V
of France. Soon this was followed by a life of Christ,
Speculum Vitce Christi, largely taken from a French
version of the work by St Bonaventura. There is
an anticipation of the great poem of Milton in the
heading of the first chapter : ' A devoute medytacion
of the grete Councyll in Neuene for the restorynge of
man and hys sauvacyon ..." and ' All the Courte
of Neuene wondrynge and commendyng the souerayne
wysedome assented wel here to . . . '
This was the first of a succession of religious books,
another of which was The Doctrinal of Sapience, con-
sisting of that which " ought the prestres to lerne
and teche to theyr parysshes." The earliest Statutes
of the Realm to be printed were those of the Parlia-
ment of the first year of King Henry VI Fs reign, and
they were issued from Caxton's Press at about this
time. The existing remains show that a large variety
of works were being produced during the last few
years of his life, including some second editions of
early books. In preparing these we read that the
diligent enthusiast went through the pages most care-
fully, correcting errors and removing imperfections.
By this time he had introduced several improvements
176
The New Order
in types and methods ; there is greater evenness of
spacing and regularity of lines than in the first issues.
The second edition of the Game and, Playe of the
Chesse shows also an alteration in matter. The de-
dication and inscription to George, Duke of Clarence,
are removed and replaced by a prologue by Caxton
himself. In it, after the manner of men getting on
in years, he praises the ' good old times ' in which
was " every man in his office contente, and stood the
cytees of the royaume in worship and renome . . .
how was renomed the noble royaume of England, alle
the world dradde hit and spake worshyp of hit."
Two years before his death we find an interesting
connexion between Caxton and one of the great
ladies of the time. In 1489 the Duchess of Somerset,
mother of the Countess Margaret and therefore
maternal grandmother of the King, desired Caxton
to translate for her the romance of Blanchardin and
Eglantine, a French love-story. Apparently she
wished it translated only, but soon Caxton printed it,
with the inscription, ' : Unto the ryght noble puyssant
& excellent pryncesse my redoubted lady my lady
margarete duchess of Somercete moder unto our
naturel and soverayn lord. . . ."
In the same year Caxton translated and printed,
by command of the King himself, The Fayts of Arms
and Chivalry, ' \vhich book, being in French, was
delivered to me, William Caxton, by the most
Christian King, my natural sovereign lord, King
Henry VII in his Palace of Westminster." The
following year he brought out the first English version
of the devotional work known as the Fifteen Oes,
M 177
William Caxton
each prayer beginning with ' O ' This, as he states
explicitly, was ' by commandment of our liege lade
Elizabeth by the grace of God Quene of Englande and
of Fraunce, & also of the right hye & most noble
pryncesse Margarete Moder unto our soverayn lorde
the Kyng."
It is curious to notice that no inkling would be
gained from any of the books and fragments of Caxton's
writing and printing that three different sovereigns
sat on the throne of England during his work at the
Red Pale, and that each had to scheme and fight for
his crown. The fact suggests two or three things :
one, that the political ferment of royal and baronial
disputes passed very much over the heads of the
plain citizens of the towns and the yeomen of the
country. When their trade and manner of life were
violently interfered with they would accommodate
themselves as well as they could to their circumstances,
and only when hard pressed would they take sides
or espouse a cause. Townsmen were then, as always,
able to be more independent of the aristocratic class
than the farmers and peasants in rural districts, and
thus were less subject to be enrolled as ' horsed and
harnessed ' fighters in a cause which they neither
understood nor cared about.
Another point suggested is the secrecy and immunity
from criticism with which plots and counterplots
could be hatched when the great body of the people
stayed in one place, when communication was slow
and difficult, and when the government was carried
on by small and powerful minorities. We may im-
agine that when, in order to defeat the intentions of
178
The young Earl of Warwick riding from the Tower
Eileen Robinson and Irene Ward
178
The New Order
the supporters of Lambert Simnel, King Henry
caused Edward, the young Earl of Warwick, son of
the Duke of Clarence, to be brought from the Tower
and to ride through London, but few of the beholders
understood what it was all about.
We see, therefore, that what looks like Caxton's
easy transference of loyalty and admiring reverence
from one sovereign to another was really the expres-
sion of the Englishman's typical readiness to accept
things as they are. Perhaps we may interpret his
use of the term ' natural ' lord in these later inscrip-
tions as showing his real attachment to the Lancastrian
dynasty so rudely interrupted by Edward of York.
We are able to piece together a little of the in-
timate personal life of Caxton, as has already been
seen, from entries and references in registers and
accounts. In 1490 it is conjectured that he lost his
wife, for in the parish records of St Margaret, West-
minster, is the quiet reading : " Item : Atte burying
of Maude Caxton for torches and tapres iijs. ijd."
It may be that this event moved the busy worker to
turn his attention to an old Latin treatise, which he
translated and printed as The Art and Craft to know
Well to Die. The diligent worker was then getting
on in years, having either reached, or nearly attained,
the threescore years and ten of active life which few
can hope to pass. It is believed that there was no
lingering illness and no long withdrawing from his
beloved labour of translating and producing books,
but that he was actually working at an unfinished
task when he died.
His introduction to the Art and Craft just named
k_.
179
William Caxton
began When it is soo that what a man maketh or
doeth it is made to come to some ende and yf the
thynge be goode and well made it must nedes come
to goode end/ 1
He died in 1491 while at work on a translation of
the Vita Patrum, and was buried in St Margaret's
Churchyard within a stone 's-throw of the scene of his
happy labours for thirteen years. An entry in the
parish register of accounts runs :
Atte bureying of William Caxton for iiij
torches . . . . . vjs viijd
For the belle atte same bureying . . vjd
The usual charge for the ' knell,' as appears from
other entries, was sixpence, but the term ' torches '
probably covers various other items of expenditure
belonging to the funeral of a prominent citizen.
Caxton seems to have left a married daughter, to
whom, with staid affection, he no doubt left some
small legacy. But of this we have no certain know-
ledge. What we do know is that he had not amassed
wealth ; his labours had often been for love ; in spite
of the patronage of kings and nobles there were many
risks and losses attending his enterprise ; and so it
came about that his bequest to his parish church
consisted of some copies of the Golden Legend which
he had printed. There was fitness in this, since the
churches may almost be said to have contained the
first libraries, and the clergy and churchwardens
were the first booksellers. Even in Caxton's day
there probably stood near the Abbey gates, or perhaps
in St Margaret's porch, members of the ' Brothers
180
The New Order
of the Pen,' or writers, whose services might be hired
for making wills, drawing up documents, or copying
manuscripts. These copyists who had been wont
to wait, furnished with a quire of paper, inkhorn and
quills, and a narrow heavy desk, presently gave way
to the vendors of materials and implements used in
writing. Our term ' stationery ' still enshrines the
memory of the ' stations ' near the cathedrals and
churches where they stood.
181
CHAPTER XIV: Caxton s
Successor
AMONG the indirect testimony to Caxton's
high character and kindly personality may
be reckoned the attitude toward his work
and memory adopted by his colleague and successor,
Wynkyn de Worde. For the press at the Red Pale
continued though its first master's hand was still,
and from it there issued many fresh books as well as
reprints of the earlier ones. The new owner made
some alterations, devised and carried out improve-
ments in paper, types, and style ; he also introduced
title-pages, a concession which Caxton always refused
to make. But for two years he forebore to use his
own name, and announced the printed volumes as
' from Caxton's house at Westminster.' He naturally
retained the sign of the Red Pale, and modified some-
what the Caxton monogram to suit his own. An
almost comical feature is the variety of ways in which
he contrived to spell his name whether from choice
or for the sake of variety we know not. But so did
Shakespeare nearly a hundred years later. After
more than five centuries of printing and the establish-
ment of a standard spelling, we hardly recognize,
until we read the writings of the time, how much
individuality governed the form of words in those
distant days. Besides personal uncertainty, which, if
it is felt now, may be so easily removed, there seems
to have been a fashion, or succession of fashions, in
spelling.
The use of y for i, the interchangeable u and v
182
Caxtons Successor
(which now have their different provinces well de-
fined), the occasional appearance of the early English
h (then and for long years yet to be without its aspirate
pretensions), the use of c in the termination tion
(showing its French origin and pronunciation) all
these were fairly regular and established. But varia-
tions for reasons of taste seem to have occurred in
de Worde's renderings of his name. It is made to
look very Saxon in ' Wynkyn Theworde/ Latin
in Wynandus de Worde/ Spanish in ' Vuinandi
de Vuorde,' and Flemish enough in ' Winandi de
Wordensis/ Certainly it was marvellously well suited
to his trade.
Another of Caxton's workmen set up a press near
the Temple, on the boundary of the City of London.
The old ' Gates ' still retained in terminations, as
Bishopsgate, Aldgate, marked the original walls of
London. As the city grew, the settlements beyond
the walls were gradually included, and a ring of ' bars '
show the larger extent of the capital. Holborn Bars
and Temple Bar are noticeable survivals on the great
western and south-western highways.
Other printing presses, too, were set up ; one at
Oxford had been established soon after Caxton's,
and also one at St Albans. Richard Pynson, at
Temple Bar, was proud to call Caxton " my worshipful
maister." But though the new art progressed it was
still something of an ingenious toy, a curiosity rather
than a power, and was as yet to be wondered at, for
people had no inkling of the coming days of restric-
tions and penalties in store for it.
Other changes were approaching and great events
183
William Caxton
crowded on each other in the history of court and
city. The King pursued his discreet policy of seeking
for commercial possibilities on the Continent. That
most interesting confederation of towns known as
the Hanseatic League held most of the trade with the
East and had a vantage ground which the English
had not on the Baltic. They had undisputed posses-
sion of their fortress ' haus ' near London Bridge,
immune from all civic and legal restraints, and held
much land on the Lincolnshire coast by Lynn and
Boston. With this League the King arranged a more
favourable treaty, and supported it by encouraging
the building of ships of heavier draught and capacity
for larger cargoes. Still the ' mercantile marine '
and the Royal Navy were the same ; but perhaps
we may see in Henry VIFs one ship of war, the
Great Harry, the ancestor of our later formidable
list of men-of-war.
Another increase of trading facilities came about
through the King's negotiations against Venice, then
the great Mediterranean commercial centre. Her
chief rival was Pisa, for those were the davs when
*/
individual towns, and not nations, led the way in
buying and selling goods. Henry VII, always an
astute bargainer, established a wool staple at Pisa,
and concluded a treaty with Florence, the inland
mart for Pisa, by which English wool was to be carried
in English ships to Pisa instead of to Venice, and the
famous wines of Malvoisie and the fabrics and spices
from the East were to be imported similarly ; the
Venetian galleys and port being thus completely
ignored.
184
Caxton s Successor
This treaty had a distinct bearing on the interests
of Caxton and his successor, since the Italian towns
were then in the forefront of civilization. Art and
letters flourished, and the progress of printing was
more marked in Italy than in its birthplace even, the
German Mentz. There the script-form of the char-
acters, known as the ' Black Letter ' \vas discarded
for the clear Roman type, which painfully won its
place in England. The first English use of this was
made in King Henry VIIFs famous tract against
Luther, which won for him the title Fidei Defensor
still to be seen on our coins. Hence, among the
treasures of the cargoes brought from the Mediter-
ranean ports were books ; at first they were entirely
hand-written but by degrees they came to be chiefly
printed copies.
The King and his mother were ready patrons of
learning, and thus exercised great influence on the
taste and pursuits of the age. We may imagine the
King himself, perhaps with his young sons, visiting
the Red Pale and being received by Wynkyn de
Worde, as Ed\vard IV and his boys had been by
Caxton. The Countess Margaret, too, continued
her patronage of the new art. A curious old book,
known as the Scala Perfectionis (now among the
treasures of a famous library), bears the inscription,
" Englished and enprinted by command of Margaret
Countess of Richmond and Derby in Will Caxton's
house, by Wynkyn de Worde, anno salutis 1494."
Two years before Caxton died the Queen gave birth
to a daughter. She was named Margaret, and in
later days, by her marriage with James IV of Scotland,
185
William Caxton
she became the ancestress of every English sovereign
after Queen Elizabeth. In the year of Caxton 's
death another son was born to the royal pair ; he
was destined at his brother's death to become heir-
apparent and to reign as Henry VIII. The favourite
home of the King and Queen during these years was
the palace at Eltham, which alternated with that at
Sheen. About this time the King changed the latter
name to Richmond, in his own honour, a word de-
rived, it is believed, from the French Rougemont.
The favourite ambition of the monarch, after that
of amassing wealth, was building. He undertook
the restoration and enlargement of the chapel of St
George at Windsor, and the building of a worthy
memorial at Westminster to the memory of Henry VI.
The ancient Lady Chapel was pulled down, with an
adjacent smaller one ; instead was designed a lofty
and imposing chapel, rather attached to than actually
within the Abbey, to contain the tomb of the last of
the Plantagenets. The coffin of this sovereign re-
posed at the time in St George's Chapel at Windsor,
having been brought thither from Chertsey Abbey
by Richard III. This taste for building the King
may have inherited from his mother. She was con-
tinually active in supporting and fostering works of
mercy as well as places of learning. She endowed
and enlarged the St James* ' Hospital for Leprous
Maids,' about two miles from Temple Bar, in the
fields that were afterward to become the sur-
roundings of Piccadilly. At Oxford she endowed
two Readerships in Theology, and founded two
colleges at Cambridge, Christ's and St John's. Queen
186
Caxtons Successor
Elizabeth, her daughter-in-law, emulating her in this,
established the similar foundation at Cambridge,
called ' Queen's College/ in her honour.
Ten years after Caxton's death a great trouble
befell the King and Queen. Prince Arthur, the
future king, fell ill and died at the age of sixteen.
His royal father had brought about his alliance with
the Infanta Katharine of Spain, thus uniting England
with the most powerful royal house of Europe. At
the close of the following year the Queen died, and
the splendid chapel, then newly begun at Westminster,
had its first ceremony in the interment of her body.
Her broken-hearted consort spared nothing to show
her honour in her funeral ; its pompous state ex-
celled anything that had ever been seen on such an
occasion.
The coffin was taken on a royal barge, draped with
black and silver, from Richmond to St Paul's, where
a service was held and a sermon delivered by Fisher,
the eloquent Bishop of Rochester. Thence it was
borne through mourning streets, hung with sad-
coloured arras and tapestries, to Westminster Hall.
Tawny velvyt and black sarsnet " draped the walls,
and silver embossings of the rose and portcullis shone
in the sombre folds. A simple feature, like that which
had appeared in her coronation, was that within the
guard of barons and knights walked immediately
about the bier as many maidens as there were years
in the Queen's age, clad in white and bearing tapers.
A white cross stretched the length of the velvet-
covered coffin as it rested in the great central space
of Westminster Hall.
187
William Caxton
The coffin was then carried (along the route followed
by the Queen's coronation procession) to the steps of
the high altar in the Abbey, later to be transferred
to a temporary resting-place until the building of the
chapel should be finished. When this event finally
came about the original intention had drifted from
royal and other memories, and it was understood to
be the chapel and memorial, not of Henry VI, but of
Henry VII. This was in 1581, and eight years later
King Henry himself was there laid to rest.
The Countess Margaret lived but a few months
after the death of her beloved son. Her tomb may
be seen in the splendid chapel, engraved with the
Derby arms and insignia, while the antelope of the
house of Lancaster lies at her feet. The symbolism
of the daisies wrought in the iron of the gates pro-
claims Margaret, ' the descendant and ancestress of
Kings.'' The Bishop of Rochester preached her
funeral sermon, and the great scholar Erasmus wrote
the inscription for her tomb.
A relic of this distinguished and lovable woman
is among the historic treasures of a famous house.
A missal, richly bound and ornamented, the gift one
New Year's Day of the King and Queen, bears in
curious old script the greetings of their Majesties.
In the King's hand are the words : " Madame, I pray
you Remember me your loving Maister, Henry R " ;
and in the Queen's : " Madame I pray you forget not
me. Pray to God that I may have part of your
prayers. Elysabeth y e Queene.' J
None of the three husbands of the great Countess
is buried in the Abbey. The Earl of Richmond's
188
Caxtons Successor
tomb is in St David's Cathedral, bearing the inscrip-
tion, written by his widow, which named him " father
and brother to Kings." His mother, Katharine of
Valois, the widowed Queen of Henry V, whose
marriage with Owen Tudor offended all her royal
contemporaries, lay in an obscure recess not far
from the stately Chapel of Henry VH. The Earl
of Derby, Constable of England, the most powerful
subject in the realm, had died some few years before
the Countess Margaret. Strangely enough, his brother,
Sir William Stanley, was implicated in the Perkin
Warbeck rebellion ; he was beheaded in the Tower
and his great possessions were confiscated.
At the time when the Countess was laid to rest,
there had reposed near by for a hundred years and
more the bones of England's first great poet, Geoffrey
Chaucer. His burial in the Abbey was, however, due
to the fact that he was an official in the royal house-
hold and lived in Westminster in a house leased from
the Abbot. But a leaden tablet with an inscription
in recognition of his genius was placed on a pillar
by Caxton, the devout lover of his verse. Thus our
master-printer is linked with his illustrious pre-
decessor by this evidence of his homage as well as in
his production of printed copies of Chaucer's works.
It is usual to think of the fifteenth century as a dark
and inglorious period, the stormy dawn of a bright
and marvellous day. Yet there lived some whose
names are great in our history : among scholars
were those of Grocyn and Linacre, and among poets,
Henryson, Skelton, and Dunbar of Scotland. Henry-
son was poet laureate in Caxton's latter years, and
William Caxton
it was his proud duty to compose a panegyric upon
the occasion of the young Prince Arthur being created
Prince of Wales and on that of Prince Henry (after-
ward Henry VIII) being made Duke of York. After-
ward he became tutor to the young Prince. In
his own words :
The honor of England I lernyd to spelle
In dygnite roiall that doth excelle.
But, as we have seen, there was then greater freedom
in the matter of spelling than has since been the
case.
Caxton lived just long enough to see the small
beginning of English expansion of territory, for at
his death the Bristol seamen, John and Sebastian
Cabot, were about to start on their adventurous
voyage to Newfoundland, in two sturdy little ships
manned with prisoners released from gaol.
Of the men to become famous in the next reign,
Colet, afterward Dean of St Paul's and founder of
the famous school, was a young man ; so was Sir
Thomas More, so was Wolsey, the future Cardinal
and the last of the great ecclesiastical statesmen.
Each of them must have seen and handled some
copies of the half hundred books printed by Caxton
at the Red Pale.
The principal literature produced in England in
Caxton's own day consisted of ballads. These were
the lineal descendants of the rhythmical narratives
declaimed by minstrels, commemorating the lives and
feats of heroes and adventurers, with many romantic
additions. The most famous collection was that
190
Caxtoris Successor
entitled " A Lytel Giste of Robin Hode," and this we
find was one of those printed by Wynkyn de Worde
at the command of the Countess Margaret.
The life and work of William Caxton, burgher,
translator, printer and lover of books, are worthily
and fittingly commemorated in Westminster. The
modern Hall bears his name, and its windows, like
those of St Margaret's Church, picture him as he
lived and worked. The ancient bell had sounded over
his head in his busy labours, and rang his knell when
he went to rest in those far-off days of long ago.
AMONG THE WORKS CONSULTED IN THE PREPARATION
OF THIS BOOK ARE THE FOLLOWING :
THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Ed. Hurst
and Poole.
SOCIAL ENGLAND. Ed. TrailL
ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Denton.
TOWN LIFE IN ENGLAND IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
Mrs T. R. Green.
EDWARD IV. Stratford.
RICHARD III. Gairdner.
THE UNPOPULAR KING. Legge.
ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS. Bttsch.
THE PASTON LETTERS. Ed. Gairdner.
LIFE AND TYPOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM CAXTON. Blades.
MEDIEVAL TOWNS : LONDON, BRUGES, ETC.